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Contingent Coordination: Practical and Theoretical Puzzles for Homeland Security
Title: Contingent Coordination: Practical and Theoretical Puzzles for Homeland Security
Date: September 2003
Author: Donald Kettl
Institution: American Review of Public Administration
Bibliographic Entry: Kettl, Donald. “Contingent Coordination: Practical and Theoretical Puzzles for Homeland Security.” American Review of Public Administration, vol. 33, no. 2, September 2003, 253-277.
Electronic Link: http://arp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/33/3/253
Key Words: coordination, homeland security, organization theory, public administration
Summary of Key Points, Issues, Conclusions:
The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. The creation of this department created new and unprecedented challenges for the theory and practice of public administration. “A careful look at these challenges, however, reveals a familiar core: At its foundation, homeland security is about one of public administration's oldest puzzles—coordination. Although the field has a great deal to say about solving this puzzle, homeland security introduces new and especially difficult dimensions: matching place-based problems with functionally organized services; defining and achieving a minimum level of protection that all citizens ought to receive; building a reliable learning system for problems that, with luck, occur only rarely; balancing the new homeland security mission with existing missions that remain important; and meeting citizens' expectations in a fragmented governance system. These challenges demand a new, more effective system of contingent coordination, one that flexibly develops and matches government's capacity to new and unpredictable problems.”
Name of Researcher: Julie Curry
Institution: Integrative Center for Homeland Security, Texas A&M University
Date Posted: February 18, 2008