Interagency Process--Analysis and Reform Recommendations

摘要

What is generally stipulated among scholars government leaders and military professionals is that our current national security apparatus lacks capacity to effectively implement national strategies across the interagency. The capacity in question centers on interagency unity of effort that synchronizes diverse cultures competing interests and differing priorities of government institutions while embracing valuable expertise and experience. The National Security Council's interagency process resident in the Executive Office of the President provides advice but lacks the authority to direct responses across the U.S. Government. No single government entity possesses sufficient capacity for unilateral response thus interagency coordination is necessary to synchronize instruments of national power and thereby apply unified strength toward resolving threats to our national security. Assessing the nature of the 21st Century security threat manifested in complex contingencies such as the terrorist attacks of 9/11 Hurricane Katrina and the Global War on Terrorism is the first step in crafting an effective interagency reform strategy. Second an analysis of the existing interagency process reveals strengths and weaknesses upon which to build greater interagency capacity. Finally this analysis offers reform recommendations of legislative organizational and cultural nature to improve interagency policy implementation in support of national security.