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Summary:
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.
Six decades later, in the wake of 9/11, many observers and practitioners note, the United States
faces greater uncertainty and a broader array of security challenges than before, including nonstate
as well as traditional state-based threats, and transnational challenges such as organized
crime, energy security concerns, cyber attacks, and epidemic disease. The ?outdated bureaucratic
superstructure? of the 20th century is an inadequate basis for protecting the nation from 21st
century security challenges, critics contend, and the system itself, or alternatively, some of its key
components, requires revision.
Doubts about the adequacy of the system to meet 21st century security challenges have been
catalyzed by recent operational experiences, including Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation
Enduring Freedom, and responses to Hurricane Katrina. In the view of many defense and foreign
affairs analysts, these operations revealed deep flaws in the ability of the U.S. government to
make timely decisions, to develop prioritized strategies and integrated plans, to resource those
efforts, and to effectively coordinate and execute complex missions. Such shortcomings, some
argue, have had a deleterious impact on the success of those missions and on the reputation of the
United States as a reliable partner.
Should these ?national security reform? debates continue to gain momentum, Congress could
choose to weigh in by holding further hearings to clarify identified problems and to consider the
advantages and risks of proposed solutions; by developing legislation ranging from a new
National Security Act to specific changes in executive branch organization, authorities, or
resourcing; or by considering adjustments in Congress?s own arrangements for providing holistic
oversight of national security issues.
The purpose of this report, which will be updated as events warrant, is to help frame the emerging
debates for the 111th Congress by taking note of the leading advocates for change, highlighting
identified shortcomings in key elements of the current system, and describing categories of
emerging proposals for change.
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