Repairing the Interagency Process

Abstract

Getting various U.S. Government agencies to pursue common and coherent policies is a perennial problem. Redirecting the interagency process to produce consistent, coherent national policy that all Government agencies follow for stability and reconstruction operations will be no less difficult. This challenge requires a new round of institutional reforms and new interagency leaders with the skills and knowledge to break down bureaucratic stovepipes. As the interagency process has become increasingly involved in post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction in the past decade, its shortcomings have become more apparent. Examples of poor interagency cooperation abound in recent U.S. operations. In Afghanistan, the process of building an international coalition was hampered by the different approaches of the Departments of State and Defense. This lack of unity led to diplomatic frustration and resentment and to allied reluctance to participate in stabilization efforts after the fall of the Taliban. The failure to coordinate civilian and military efforts also had tremendous consequences during the occupation of Iraq. The Coalition Provisional Authority lacked a significant presence outside Baghdad for many months, and military commanders were forced to fill that void by developing uncoordinated policies on governance and other civilian matters within their areas of operations. The National Security Council (NSC) is the only U.S. Government structure capable of executing this complex interagency task. We propose creating a new structure, called the Prevention, Reconstruction, and Stabilization Cell (PRSC), within the NSC. The PRSC is designed to be agile, flat, and flexible. Perhaps most importantly, its multidisciplinary staff would provide the broad range of talents and skills required to address crisis management from prevention to post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA520648

Entities

People

  • Anne M. Moisan
  • Nora Bensahel

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combat Operations
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Crisis Management
  • Department Of State
  • Governments
  • Interagency Coordination
  • International Organizations
  • Law
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Operations
  • Military Personnel
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Security
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Systems Analysis and Design