| Since the events of September 11, 2001, the United States has turned an eye on security measures at home and abroad to protect its people and interests from another crippling attack by terrorist organizations. Each year, the President has called for increases in the Homeland-Security budget to fund increased defensive measures and utilization of new technology. In addition, private businesses are looking into the investments they need to make to put critical security measures into place. To determine the optimal methods of combating terrorism within a defined budget, whether that budget is in the billions or just a few thousand dollars, is a challenge due to the infinite nature of the terrorist threat, target, and method of attack. Security planners must rely on historical data, available intelligence, risk management, and assumptions. Based on a method suggested in the paper, "Multiobjective Decision Analysis of Theater Missile Defense Architectures" by Parnell, Metzger, Merrick, and Eilers, this thesis tailors their process of MODA into one that may be used to assist planning an optimal architecture to optimize resources available for U.S. Port Security, specifically, container security. |
