Role of the Army Reserve in the Weapons of Mass Destruction/Homeland Defense Program

Since the fall of the Berlin wall and the subsequent end of the Cold War, the United States faces a multidimensional threat never before seen within our nations' borders. Rogue nations and stateless organizations already have or are developing the capability to threaten the United States through acts of terror, information warfare, and the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction. As a nation, we are not prepared to prevent or respond to these threats. A federal infrastructure does not yet exist that can adequately prevent or react to such an attack. Given these increasing threats to the territory, population, and infrastructure of the United States, the Army Reserve should have an expanded role in providing homeland defense capabilities. The Army Reserve is well suited to homeland defense missions. The necessary infrastructure already exists in all 50 states. This thesis explains the role of the federal agencies tasked with missions in the Weapons of Mass Destruction/ Homeland Defense program, and recommends the Army Reserve as the single training base to train first responders to weapons of mass destruction incidents.