Corrections.com guest writer, Dr. Richard Hoyer on the way we think about terrorism.

From a psychological standpoint we view ourselves as a victim of terrorism. What we need to consider is how we can view ourselves as a proactive deterrent to terrorism.

The entire intent of terrorism is psychological - to create fear, uncertainty and a feeling of helplessness, and to take control out of our hands. What knowledge would enable us to overcome our fear and take control of our environment?

In asking myself that question in the aftermath of 9/11, while teaching psychology as an Associate Dean and college professor, I decided to assess the existing proactive training and educational programs being offered across the country.

Approaching this with the mindset that there must be some form of counter-terrorism training and education offered at our nation's colleges and universities, I began my research and examined all existing programs. Surprisingly, the only counter-terrorism education I discovered are those courses offered exclusively for military personnel through their various war colleges.

Continuing my research, I contacted all publishers of college textbooks to request copies of texts they produced on counterterrorism. One of the publishers stated there is “no such animal” and then asked: “Would you be interested in writing one?”

Similar responses were received from the other publishers. All they had available were the same old civil defense-type of texts that criminal justice and military science programs have used for the last 20 years.

It was clear that a proactive approach to counterterrorism was lacking. All existing training and educational programs are geared toward reacting after a terror attack has occurred. Although this is important to know, no one was teaching prevention strategies.

Realizing the huge undertaking to tackle this obvious deficit, I decided to explore fulfilling the need of a proactive training and education program which could be made available to the general public and to our country's first responders (police, fire, emergency medical and hazardous materials response teams) and governmental planning levels.

Approaching this as a “labor of love” and thinking about the psychological terror instilled by 9/11, I began recruiting national and international counterterrorism experts with a proven track record of many years in counterterrorism. These professionals could not be only police officers or former military personnel, but instead must have had specific expertise in terrorism and counterterrorism.

These professionals were asked to design and develop our courses from scratch, based on their “real world experience.” Former FBI, CIA, and recently retired military intelligence professionals were sought.

Among our recruiting efforts, we have been fortunate to bring in a team of licensed psychologists to write our Psychology of Terrorism course and Prevention of Workplace Violence seminar (identifying the potential for violence in the workplace and stopping it before it happens).

These counterterrorism training and educational programs must be timely and force the student to think outside of the box, as the terrorists do.

Another consideration was when these programs evolved to the degree level, would homeland security degree afford career portability. With this in mind, we elected to offer the proposed degree program in Public Administration with a concentration in homeland security.

Since 9/11, many colleges and universities have developed programs and there are now several textbooks on the market. An examination of these new programs shows that most are dabbling in counterterrorism, where we specialize in it.

After four years of planning, course design and development by counterterrorism and topic-specific professionals, we are now prepared to offer our Certificate in Homeland Security and Diploma in Homeland Security programs. Our proposed degree programs will become available as we meet educational regulatory requirements.

We hope to engage the entire population in preventing terrorism by educating them on its psychology and the environmental factors that create the opportunity for terrorism.  Our education is true to our motto: “Protecting Your Country Through Knowledge.”             

Richard J. Hoyer, Ph.D., M.D., Ed.D. is the founder and chairman of the Homeland Security Defense Coalition and Homeland Security University project. It was established to provide a single source for high level education and training in the field of counter-terrorism. Visit www.Homeland-Security-College.us.