Benchmarking Homeland Security Education in the EU and the US

Researchers from the University of Central Missouri, Virginia Commonwealth University, Northumbria University (United Kingdom) and Linnaeus University (Sweden) joined for a policy-oriented measures project funded by a grant from the EU-US Atlantis Program (P116J090056). This project has been examining homeland security academic provision within the U.S. and EU. The study’s goals focus on developing benchmarks and assessing core areas within the homeland security-related curriculums. This paper will present preliminary findings that examine definitional and conceptual differences on Homeland Security provision both between US and EU and within these two regions. Amidst frequent calls for closing the gap between security services and academia, these findings could have an impact on establishing specific benchmarks for “homeland security” specific academic programs. In the US context these academic programs reflect a post 9-11 government restructuring that has not occurred to the same extent in either the governmental or academic institutions within the EU.