— Volume VI No. 3: September 2010 —

Organizational Innovations in Counterterrorism: Lessons for Cyber-security, Human Trafficking, and Other Complex National Missions

COMMENTS

CHDS Comment Policy

AUTHOR:
Daniel R. Langberg
Daniel Langberg is a founding member of the Project on National Security Reform (PNSR) – a comprehensive effort to improve the U.S. government’s ability to meet the strategic challenges of the twenty-first-century. He currently serves as deputy director for interagency teams and planning and was recently the deputy director of the first-ever comprehensive study of the National Counterterrorism Center’s Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning. Mr. Langberg is also an analyst at the Institute for Defense Analyses where he conducts research on a variety of issues related to complex contingencies and interagency affairs. He may be reached at dlangberg@pnsr.org.

ABSTRACT:
Today’s national security environment demands whole-of-government approaches to complex national missions ranging from combating terrorism and trafficking in persons to securing cyberspace. These and many other twenty-first-century security challenges require an agile and integrated response; however, our national security system is organized along functional lines (diplomatic, military, intelligence, law enforcement, etc.) with weak coordinating mechanisms across these functions. Recent reforms in the U.S. government counterterrorism community offer valuable insights into this challenge as well as organizational lessons that can be applied to other complex national security missions. Specifically, the Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning (DSOP) within the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) provides an innovative and promising model for a national level interagency team that can support the National Security Staff in strategically managing a priority mission from a whole-of-government perspective.

Read full article.

SUGGESTED CITATION:
Langberg, Daniel R.. “Organizational Innovations in Counterterrorism: Lessons for Cyber-security, Human Trafficking, and Other Complex National Missions.” Homeland Security Affairs 6, issue 3 (September 2010)
http://www.hsaj.org/?article=6.3.1