Project Approach

Objectives

This research project’s specific objectives were to:

1. Capture U.S. national security and homeland security practitioners’ and policymakers’ current understandings of environmental security;
2. Identify common definitional components and attributes that conceptually bridge, operationalize, and could add value in meeting institutional mission, policy, and operational challenges; and
3. Understand current capability needs and existing resources within U.S. national security and homeland security communities of practice.

Methodology

The effort utilized three specific research methods:

1. Comprehensive literature review
2. Email survey
   
3. Focus group workshop
   

First, a comprehensive literature review identified federal agencies’ and departments’ national security, homeland security, environmental, and development missions and functionalities. This review also identified potential participants and compiles their host organization, mission, position, and contact information. Second, an e-mail survey captured practitioners’ understandings of environmental security, its relevance for their institution’s mission and operations, and any known environmental security capability gaps and tools needed. Third, a project workshop developed participants’ shared understanding of environmental security, identified the concept’s institutional relevance and implications, explored capability needs and resources, and generated participant consensus and ownership.

Project Overview By Task

To achieve these objectives, the project’s research plan is broken down into five separate yet complementary tasks.  They are part of an action research approach and are broken out to include:

• Task 1: Federal National and Homeland Security Mission and Functional Analysis
• Task 2: Participant and Stakeholder Identification
• Task 3: Definitional Component and Understanding Capture
• Task 4: Commonality Leveraging, Operationalization, and Gap / Opportunity Assessments
• Task 5: Participant and Stakeholder Result Sharing

Each of these tasks built upon the previous ones and collectively represented an evolutionary investigative process and plan.  It was specifically design to develop the necessary knowledge, understanding, and participant ownership to successfully achieve the project's research objectives.  These tasks are very complementary and dynamic as illustrated in the project flow diagram shown below.