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Homeland Security
Definition
In policing, ‘homeland security’ refers to police activities designed to prevent and respond to terrorism. Because terrorism is itself an ambiguous and contested concept, homeland security does not admit to precise and consensual definition either. This inherent ambiguity is exacerbated by the connections and overlap between anti-terrorism work and other policing tasks (such as the response to natural disasters), which make it difficult to distinguish a hard core of homeland security activities.
Distinctive Features
The phrase ‘homeland security’ first came into widespread use after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. (A different use of the term appeared in apartheid South Africa, where security agencies for the ten Bantu homelands were sometimes called ‘homeland security’ forces.) The 9/11 attacks eventually led the US government to ...
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