The Department of Homeland Security published this report in November, 2011. The preparedness system plan is part of Presidential Policy Directive 8 regarding national preparedness, and is "designed to guide domestic efforts of all levels of government, the private and nonprofit sectors and the public, the National Preparedness System includes guidance for planning, organization, equipment, training and exercises needed to build and maintain domestic capabilities in support of the National Preparedness Goal."

Richard A. Falkenrath, John McLaughlin, and Juan Zarate discuss the extent to which the U.S. is still vulnerable, as part of a CFR symposium, 9/11: Ten Years Later.

Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, explores the lasting impact of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the anthrax attacks that followed on disaster preparedness and health policy in the United States. Garrett argues that "all our readiness response depends on well-funded police, well-funded fire departments, well-funded hospitals, well-funded public health infrastructures, and precisely the opposite is where we are going right now." Garrett cautions that U.S. preparedness for a major terrorist attack may be decreasing. "As budgets are being cut at the federal level, the state level, and the local level, we're actually less ready than we were in 2001," Garrett says.

CFR Senior Fellow Paul B. Stares offers crisis preparedness solutions to help the Obama administration reduce its chances of being blindsided by future uprisings, as it was by the Arab Spring.

As the recent fiasco with body scanners at airports demonstrated, the United States' homeland security strategy is off track.

Tim Starks and Seth Stern of Congressional Quarterly argue that after nearly a full decade into the war on terrorism the United States still lacks a legal framework for what is widely seen as the top national security threat of the modern era.

Jagdish N. Bhagwati argues in favor of reinstating ROTC at Columbia.

Paul B. Stares offers suggestions on measures that would increase U.S. preparedness for crises such as those in the Middle East and North Africa.

This Foreign Policy survey of terrorism experts concludes that nine years after America launched  full-scale war on terror, the nation appears only "marginally more secure."

Laurie Garrett and Captain Eustaquio Castro-Mendoza, USN, discuss the steps that must be taken to protect Haiti, still recovering from the earthquake, from the coming hurricane season.

Eric Schwartz, Assistant Secretary of State For Population, Refugees and Migration, and Paul Stares, Senior Fellow For Conflict Prevention and Director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council On Foreign Relations and Co-Author Of CFR special Report, "Enhancing U.S. Preventive Action," discuss how the U.S. and the international community can respond more effectively to future crises.

Edward Alden writes that the Department of Homeland Security "has yet to become a whole that adds up to more than its parts," reviewing books by its first two secretaries, Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff.

Stephen Flynn, Frank J. Cilluffo, and Sharon L. Cardash remember Hurrican Katrina and discuss the risks from future natural disasters if infrastructure is ignored.

Stephen E. Flynn and Irwin Redlener argue that the United States would fail a pandemic preparedness stress test.

Stephen Flynn, a leading homeland security expert, says while the initial U.S. response to the swine flu outbreak has gone reasonably well, the country remains ill prepared for a severe epidemic.

Up-to-date guidelines from the Center for Disease Control on the proper response to the latest outbreak of swine influenza.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly details the counterterrorism methods employed by the New York City Police Department for terrorist attack prevention and response.