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Building an Interagency Cadre of National Security Professionals: Proposals, Recent Experience, and Issues for Congress
Title: Building an Interagency Cadre of National Security Professionals: Proposals, Recent Experience, and Issues for Congress
Date: July 8, 2008
Author: Catherine Dale
Institution: Congressional Research Service
Bibliographic Entry: Dale, Catherine. “Building an Interagency Cadre of National Security Professionals: Proposals, Recent Experience, and Issues for Congress.” July 8, 2008. http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34565_20080708.pdf (Accessed August 26, 2008).
Electronic Link: http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34565_20080708.pdf
Key Words: professionals, managers, national security specialists, personnel system, recruiting
Summary of Key Points, Issues, Conclusions:
This report provides an overview of the proposals to develop and foster an interagency cadre of national security specialists from all of the agencies and departments with responsibilities in national security. Stemming from the belief that reform is needed to increase the collaboration, integration, and overall efficacy of national security mechanisms within the US, many practitioners and scholars have argued for the establishment of such a cadre in order to create a group of professionals “better prepared to plan national security missions together in Washington, D.C., and to execute them in the field, and eventually, better able to oversee their own agencies’ efforts from leadership positions.”
Advocates of an interagency cadre point to operational failures during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and during Hurricane Katrina as evidence for the need to develop interagency national security specialists. Efforts in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Armed Services Committee have pushed for integration among agencies. The National Security Professional Development (NSPD) program put forth by the Bush Administration, although given little consideration on the Hill, was an initiative aimed at producing an interagency cadre of national security specialists. This report describes and assesses the NSPD as well as other proposals geared toward the establishment of an interagency cadre and touches on other issues that might influence Congressional debate on the subject. These issues include: the nature of the legislation needed to establish and foster a program, the possibility of Congressional oversight, the scope of the program, how integration would work and be implemented, program objectives, the necessary resources, personnel system incentives, and recruiting.
Name of Researcher: Nathan Brown
Institution: Integrative Center for Homeland Security, Texas A&M University
Date Posted: August 28, 2008