Applying the THIRA to Special Events: A Framework for Capabilities-Based Planning Adoption In Local Governments

Determining preparedness across the United States homeland security enterprise HSE is a complex task because the nations overall disaster management capability is an aggregation of the independently developed capabilities of local and state agencies. In 2012, FEMA promulgated a six-step capabilities-based planning CBP framework, the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment THIRA, to standardize how states and major cities assess preparedness. CBP is a non-linear planning process used within the Department of Defense DoD to determine how military capabilities should develop to ensure success in future conflicts, despite uncertainty around threats, actors, and theaters. This thesis proposes increasing CBP adoption by state and local governments through incorporating an adapted THIRA methodology into recurring, real-world interagency activities, such as mass-gathering contingency planning. An expanded THIRA framework is synthesized, which completes an initial DoD CBP sequence in the context of local government planning for a special event. Three policy options are developed that evaluate the adapted THIRA frameworks implementation in these scenarios no adoption, use in a local government-planned event, and adoption within a national special security event NSSE. This thesis recommends implementing a THIRA framework into special-event planning to allow interagency stakeholders to perform and adapt CBP locally in real-world collaborative environments.