ABSTRACT
The dynamic variables of preparedness and disaster management require public and private actors to navigate a labyrinth of public policy and operational systems in a globalized and political environment. The sources include preparedness leaders from the public and private sectors and from international centers of excellence. The goal was to obtain general information and empirical data to identify the most significant issues surrounding national preparedness and critical infrastructure resilience. Public policy variablesdrawing from McGuire (2006) represent the independent variables such as activation, framing, mobilizing, and synthesizing. Therefore, the dependent variabledesired systemic outcomeis the sustainment of preparedness and resilience within the whole-of-nation homeland security enterprise. Disaster-related case studies, strategic document reviews, and interviews with subject matter experts were employed to provide historical context, document interagency experience, develop research questions, and test the findings. As previously mentioned, the problem definition frames the challenge of this qualitative study in the context of homeland security policy, public-private planning, and interagency coordination.
