The Fifth Side of the Pentagon: Moving the Coast Guard to the Department of Defense

Abstract

Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the United States Coast Guard, the smallest of America's armed forces, was given massive new homeland protection responsibilities. Unfortunately, the service struggles to fulfill these duties due to aged equipment, insufficient personnel strength, and inadequate funding. This paper analyses the Coast Guard's place in government and proposes moving the service to the Department of Defense (DoD). A close examination of the growing Coast Guard mission set shows how the service has gained major new responsibilities in recent years without a corresponding increase in resources. A review of relations between the Coast Guard, the executive branch, and the Congress sheds light on the systemic problems that hamper the Coast Guard's ability to field the forces needed to carry out its mandated missions. Next, the most commonly heard arguments against shifting the service to DoD are evaluated and countered. The paper then highlights the important efficiencies that a move of the Coast Guard to DoD would make to national defense, homeland security, and the service's own operational capabilities.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 10, 2002
Accession Number
ADA464457

Entities

People

  • Jim Howe

Organizations

  • Marine Corps War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Coast Guard
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Homeland Defense
  • Homeland Security
  • Law
  • Maritime Domain Awareness
  • Maritime Security
  • Military Science
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Naval Operations
  • Naval Warfare
  • Navy
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Economics
  • Maritime Security/Maritime Homeland Security