Coordinating the War on Terrorism
Abstract
The war on terrorism has changed Americans lives and strained the capacities of their government. The Federal Government confronts a confounding array of choices about priorities and coordination. Although the Cold War required synchronizing America's global anticommunist campaign, the war on terrorism presents several new and distinct challenges to coordination. Each of the main government departments (e.g., Homeland Security, State, Justice, Defense, Treasury) has a major role, but none can succeed on its own, and the number of agencies involved in aspects of counterterrorism is large and growing. The war also requires the Federal Government to reach out to state and local governments at home and to governments abroad. Another challenge is that the war on terrorism involves many agencies not just in making policy but also in implementing it, so coordination needs to extend into operations. The war also engages intelligence agencies as operators abroad -- not just passive collectors or analysts -- to a degree not seen since the Vietnam War. What is distinctly new for the U.S. Government is the need to coordinate across foreign and domestic counterterrorism activities -- the "foreign-domestic divide" -- in ways that were not demanded by the threats of the Cold War. Finally, the possibility that terrorists might attack at any time means that coordination may need to be instant, perhaps involving preemptive operations that could take place both at home and abroad. These attacks or operations would invoke the highest stakes for senior officials, including the President, and they would occur in the full glare of media attention. This Occasional Paper addresses the question of how the war on terrorism should be coordinated within the executive branch of the Federal Government, in particular within the White House.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA433245
Entities
People
- Daniel Byman
- Gregory F. Treverton
- Lynn E. Davis
- Sara Daly
- William Rosenau
Organizations
- RAND Corporation