TSA Chief Speaks to Pardee School Students
Jessica Stern, Research Professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, hosted Vice Admiral Peter V. Neffenger, Administrator for the Transportation Security Administration, for a guest lecture on his leadership of the TSA. The lecture was delivered to students in Stern’s IR 557 Guerrilla Warfare and Terrorism course.
Neffenger leads a workforce of nearly 60,000 employees employees, including the Federal Air Marshal Sevice, and is responsible for security operations at nearly 450 airports throughout the United States and shared security for highways, railroads, ports, mass transit systems and pipelines.
Under Neffenger’s leadership, TSA continues to evolve as a risk-based, intelligence-driven, professional counterterrorism agency dedicated to protecting the U.S. transportation systems.
Neffenger discussed why transportation infrastructure continues to be a primary target for terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and ISIS.
“There’s a lot of threat reporting against the transportation world, and if you think about it, it makes sense,” Neffenger said. “If you can keep people from getting things to and from, not only will you hurt us economically, there is pretty big psychological effect as well. If you don’t feel safe getting from place to place that’s a good thing for terrorist groups.”
Neffenger also outlined steps TSA is taking to make the passenger experience more frictionless while improving counterterrorism measures at airports and other transportation hubs throughout the United States.