DHS Unity of Effort
Big news over at the Department of Homeland Security. Now in its 11th year, the Department continues to be operationally disaggregated into its component parts, with little of the cross-cutting economies of scale and efficiencies of effort that were a promised result of its creation. Prior Secretaries have tried to tame the process with limited success. It appears that Secretary Jeh Johnson is going to try again -- and he looks to have a pretty solid plan of action. That, at least, is the impression I get from his
}
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Big news over at the Department of Homeland Security. Now in its 11th year, the Department continues to be operationally disaggregated into its component parts, with little of the cross-cutting economies of scale and efficiencies of effort that were a promised result of its creation. Prior Secretaries have tried to tame the process with limited success. It appears that Secretary Jeh Johnson is going to try again -- and he looks to have a pretty solid plan of action. That, at least, is the impression I get from his memorandum yesterday on DHS Unity of Effort. It appears that Secretary Johnson is going to try and mold DHS management processes into a more coherent process. Most notably, the Secretary has suspended development of the DHS Strategic Play for FY14-18, pending a complete review. For years, I've thought that DHS's biggest problem was its lack of a coherent centralized management structure. This is a step in the right direction.
Paul Rosenzweig is the founder of Red Branch Consulting PLLC, a homeland security consulting company. He formerly served as deputy assistant secretary for policy in the Department of Homeland Security. He is a professorial lecturer in law at George Washington University, a senior fellow in the Tech, Law & Security program at American University, and a board member of the Journal of National Security Law and Policy.
More Articles
-
When Is a Drug a Weapon? The Legal Puzzles of Designating Fentanyl a ‘Weapon of Mass Destruction’
President Trump’s WMD designation could have major implications for civil-military relations and asset forfeiture, if courts agree. -
Why the Government Keeps Failing to Re-Indict Letitia James
Prosecutors are satisfying the definition of insanity—doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -
Rational Security: The “Chestbursters Roasting on an Open Fire” Edition
Scott Anderson, Alan Rozenshtein, and Ari Tabatabai talked through the week’s big national security news stories.
.png?sfvrsn=48e6afb0_5)
