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Our political system is too cumbersome to deal effectively with decisionmaking on the complex problems of the modern world. This problem may be irresolvable, but over the very long run, [it] could overwhelm everything else.
- Robert Rubin, 1993(1)
However the specific problems are labeled, we believe they are symptoms of the Government's broader inability to adapt how it manages problems to the new challenges of the 21st century.
- The 9/11 Commission Report, 2004(2)
By enhancing the authority of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the unified combatant commands, the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act created a major impetus for the military to operate more efficiently and effectively. There have been broad discussions about similar legislation for the Federal Government over the last year. In September 2004, General Peter Pace, USMC, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked whether we needed a Goldwater-Nichols-like change for the interagency process. "Might we, at the national level, ask our Cabinet-level individuals to give up some of their day-to-day prerogatives and authority in a way that they will pick up in spades at the National security Council level?"1 He proposed a "lead agency concept," in which the President would designate a department or agency that "would have the authority to tell folks in the Government in various agencies to get this job done."
Unfortunately, a Governmentwide Goldwater-Nichols Act that relies on the lead agency concept would most likely fail in the absence of "joint" organizations throughout the Federal Government similar to the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and the combatant commands that predated the 1986 act. In the absence of organizations that operate jointly and high-ranking government officials dedicated to jointness, the lead agency concept would fall prey to the parochial power of the various departments and agencies, which in the end can choose to cooperate or not.
This article argues that a fundamental mismatch exists between the international threat environment and the current national security structure and that the lack of national-level joint interagency organizations undermines the ability of the United States to develop appropriate policies and implement comprehensive strategies. At a time when threats and problems are merging to develop deep, long-lasting challenges to national security, America...