Organizing the U.S. Government for National Security: Overview of the Interagency Reform Debates

Abstract

A growing community of interest, including Members of Congress, senior officials in the executive branch, and think-tank analysts, is calling for a reexamination of how well the U. S. government, including both the executive branch and Congress, is organized to apply all instruments of national power to national security activities. The organizations and procedures used today to formulate strategy, support presidential decision-making, plan and execute missions, and budget for those activities are based on a framework established just after World War II. That framework was designed to address a very different global strategic context: a bipolar world with a single peer competitor state, the Soviet Union, which was driven by an expansionist ideology and backed by a massive military force.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 18, 2008
Accession Number
ADA481919

Entities

People

  • Catherine Dale
  • Nina M. Serafino
  • Pat Towell

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Counterterrorism
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of State
  • Energy Security
  • Federal Budgets
  • Foreign Relations
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • Interagency Coordination
  • International Organizations
  • Law
  • National Security
  • Public Policy
  • Second World War
  • Security
  • Terrorism
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Strategic Security Studies