SECURING THE US MEXICO BORDER IN THE STATE OF TEXAS

You are working within an Emirati intelligence unit (counter terrorism) responsible for partnering with United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP). You are responsible for proactive and reactive assessments relevant to your mission to assist the DHS with border security in the state of Texas-Southwest Border Area (SWBA). You have just received direct orders to prepare a strategy for dealing with the drug cartel and terrorist threat in your assigned Area of Responsibility (AOR) in the near term and medium term (present to three years into the future). Your point of contact (customer) in the DHS-CBP consumes intelligence information by reading reports and analyzing the use of structured analytic techniques and related analytic frameworks. Given he is an American, direct statements and less formality are preferred means of communication. Therefore, you must provide a 2500-word assessment excluding front matter (cover page) and end matter (bibliography). You will also present your assessment as a short 10-minute brief. GRADING OF YOUR ASSESSMENT: 1. Research and exploitation of information streams. You will be graded for the quality of research conducted to obtain critical information related to the security threat in the SWBA-Texas (USA). (See below 4.1). 2. Comprehensiveness. You will be graded on the quality of writing to include a 10-page minimum (2500 words) that does not include cover page, front matter, and bibliography. 3. Accountability. Your assessment must have a cover page, clear introduction and thesis (executive summary, and a body with logical points organized effectively, and finally a clear conclusion briefly stating what courses of action should be taken given the lessons learned. You must also include a bibliography demonstrating your skill at selecting sources and exploiting information streams. 4. The Use of Analytic Tools. The use of analytic tools is mandatory for this assignment given the way that your customer/supervisor consumes intelligence, and the need for quality intelligence analysis of the counter terrorism threat. The following tools must be included in the body of your intelligence assessment and must also include discussion along with the graphics/techniques. 4.1 INTELLIGENCE RESEARCH. The intelligence assessment must demonstrate intelligence research approaches evident in the synergy of diverse information streams: • PRACTITIONER VIEWS. The use of expert and experienced Counter Terrorism and security perspectives. • AVERSARY VIEWS. The exploitation of adversary documents, speeches, websites, YouTube, Twitter, etc. is critical. • LOCAL VIEWS. The assessment must contain local perspectives and information to gain critical tactical information. • SCHOLARLY VIEWS. History, comparative analysis, theoretical, and other qualities are thus important from the scholarly community. 4.2. ORIENTATION AND AWARENESS. Using Structured Analytic Techniques like the Starburst Methods or PESTLE (or both together) is critical for gaining Situational Awareness. You can also use the Morphological Analysis Tool. 4.3. THREAT ASSESSMENT. The use of the CARVER threat analysis or another model of your choice is mandatory. 4.4. INSTRUMENTS OF POWER MODELS (IOP). The exercise involves assessing and countering terrorism and there for the application of an IOP model is essential. 4.5 AREA ANALYSIS TOOLS. The use of one or more area analysis tools is mandatory. 4.6 ANTICIPATION ANALYSIS TOOLS. The assessment must contain the use of at least one anticipation analysis tool. You can use the morphological analysis tool or the What If Analysis tool. Similar are tools including the STEEP+2 method, the High Impact-Low Probability Tool, and Forced Comparison Methods. Also i will present that assessment as a short 10-minute brief.