Changing Homeland Security: The Issue-Attention Cycle

The July 7, 2005 attacks on London inescapably direct public attention to our own transportation system. But eventually -- as happened after the Madrid bombings in 2004 -- public vigilance will wane. This can be seen as an affirmation of the profound trust Americans place in their public safety professionals. It also is the natural dynamic of the Issue-Attention cycle, in which certain issues follow a predictable 5-stage process pre-problem stage, alarmed discovery, awareness of the costs of making significant progress, gradual decline of intense public interest, and a post-problem stage. Before the London attacks, Homeland Security was on the cusp of the fifth and last stage. Unless the United States is attacked again, we will continue into Stage 5 once the waves from the London bombing recede. In the absence of an active national consensus that terrorists are a clear and present threat to the lives of average Americans, the dynamics of the Issue-Attention Cycle are as inevitable as the seasons.