Policy Analysis Techniques for Homeland Security Professionals

Overview

This course is designed to help practitioners develop advanced policy analysis techniques relevant to current and emerging challenges in the fields of risk management and program planning for homeland security. Through presentations, small working groups, Q&A sessions, and an end-of-program tabletop exercise, the course will provide attendees with a nuanced discussion of:

• risk assessment
• risk management
• programmatic evaluation
• future-threat forecasting and horizon scanning.

The course will be held from November 16—20, at RAND's Washington Office at 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, Virginia 22202-5050. The office is accessible via Metro trains and buses and is within walking distance of several nearby hotels as well as the Pentagon. Daily parking is available in the Pentagon City Mall parking lot. The cost of the course is $2,500 per participant. This fee includes registration, materials, and breakfast, lunch, and afternoon refreshments on each of the five conference days.

Maps and Directions
Registration Form and Brochure

Course Details

The course will be conducted by subject-matter experts from RAND, who will deliver presentations, facilitate breakout sessions, summarize key points and conclusions, and supervise a forum for discussions and questions. The topics, presentations, and working-group sessions will cater to the needs of both public- and private-sector participants, including law enforcement officers, first responders, intelligence analysts, security managers, and officials from federal, state, and local government organizations.

This event is being conducted under the auspices of RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment (ISE) and of the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School (PRGS). ISE's mission is to improve the development, operation, use, and protection of society's essential physical assets and natural resources and to enhance the related social assets of safety and security of individuals in transit and in their workplaces and communities. For more information about ISE, visit http://www.rand.org/ise/about.html.

Agenda

Monday, November 16
Identifying and Understanding Risk for Policy and Programs

Morning Session (1)	Terrorism Risk Assessment and Management
Morning Session (2)	Games and Tabletop Exercises as Tools for Assessing Risk Vulnerability and Consequence
Afternoon Working-Group Session	Homeland Security Risk Assessment
Afternoon Plenary Session	Working-Group Brief-Backs and Panel Q&A with Morning Presenters

Tuesday, November 17
Managing Risk Through Programming

Morning Session (1)	Capabilities-Based Planning
Morning Session (2)	Multiresolution Modeling and Exploratory Analysis
Morning Session (3)	Managing Risk Through Modeling and Simulation
Afternoon Working-Group Session	Programming for Risk Assessment
Afternoon Plenary Session	Working-Group Brief-Backs and Panel Q&A with Morning Presenters

Wednesday, November 18
Measuring and Evaluating Program Performance

Morning Session (1)	Total Quality Management
Morning Session (2)	Logic Modeling
Morning Session (3)	Fault-Tree Modeling and Resiliency
Morning Session (4)	Exercises for Performance Measurement
Afternoon Working-Group Session	Programmatic Evaluation
Afternoon Plenary Session	Working-Group Brief-Backs and Panel Q&A with Morning Presenters

Thursday, November 19
Designing Policies for an Uncertain Future

Morning Session (1)	RAND Futures Methodology
Morning Session (2)	Robust Decisionmaking
Morning Session (3)	Red Teaming
Afternoon Working-Group Session	Future-Threat Forecasting
Afternoon Plenary Session	Working-Group Brief-Backs and Panel Q&A with Morning Presenters

Friday, November 20
Tabletop Exercise

Morning Session	Tabletop Exercise
Afternoon Session	Tabletop Exercise, continued
Afternoon Plenary Session	Subgroup Tabletop Brief-Backs

Presenters

Frank A. Camm, Jr., is a Senior Economist at RAND's Washington Office. His research encompasses both the defense and domestic fields, including risk assessment, manpower requirements, financial management, process improvement, and environmental and energy policy.

Gary Cecchine is a Senior Researcher at RAND's Washington Office. His research focuses on technical and policy areas, including homeland security, domestic terrorism, science and environmental policy, management systems, and emergency preparedness.

Paul K. Davis is a Principal Researcher at RAND's Santa Monica Office. His areas of research expertise include strategic planning, capabilities-based planning, counterterrorism, decisionmaking theory, deterrence theory, and advanced methods of analysis and modeling.

James Dewar is the Director of the RAND Frederick S. Pardee Center for Longer Range Global Policy and the Future Human Condition; he is also a professor of long-term policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica. His main research interests are strategic planning, planning methodologies, and policymaking under uncertainty.

Brian A. Jackson is a Senior Physical Scientist and Associate Director of RAND's Homeland Security Program. His research focuses on homeland security and terrorism preparedness, including safety management, equipment and technology needs, and the design of preparedness exercises.

John Matsumura is a Senior Engineer at RAND's Pittsburgh Office. His research encompasses system-performance assessments, advanced concepts and technologies for military capability, and military-transformation alternatives.

Roger Molander is a Senior Research Scientist at RAND's Washington Office. His current research focus is the use of strategic planning exercises and methodologies to enable more effective decisionmaking in the context of national security.

Christopher Nelson is Senior Political Scientist and Associate Director for Research at RAND's Pittsburgh Office. His research work encompasses safety-systems analysis, behavioral-feedback systems, process-improvement methods, fatigue management, and approaches to integrating occupational and nonoccupational healthcare.

Steven Popper is a Senior Economist and Professor of Science and Technology Policy at the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica. His research focuses on human development, social security, public- and private-sector innovation, industrial restructuring, technology planning, and energy policy and security.

Valerie L. Williams is a Physical Scientist at RAND's Washington Office. Her research expertise includes logic modeling, performance measurement, case-study analyses, and focus-group and survey development and design.

Henry H. Willis is a Policy Researcher at RAND's Pittsburgh Office; he is also a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica. His research applies risk-analysis tools to public health and emergency preparedness, homeland- and national-security policy, energy and environmental policy, and transportation planning.

For More Information

For more information about the course, contact Peter Chalk, Course Manager or Andrew Morral, Director of the Homeland Security Program within RAND ISE.