Abstract
Homeland security educational programs face the challenge of balancing general academic skills with substantive knowledge of emerging threats. Positioning the fentanyl crisis within the United States’ opioid epidemic, this paper presents a pedagogical framework to integrate emerging issues into homeland security curricula. By examining the impact of fentanyl on public safety, public health, law enforcement, and international relations, the paper demonstrates the necessity of proactively including substantive threats in homeland security curricula. Three pedagogical approaches—content-focused learning, experiential learning, and application-focused learning can enhance students’ preparedness. The framework provides educators with a flexible, scalable, and generalizable model to address the fentanyl crisis and other emerging threats, including artificial intelligence, climate security, cybersecurity, misinformation, and pandemics.