The Foreign Service Journal, May 2010

M A Y 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 33 thereby alleviating or even elimi- nating stovepiping. The Time Has Come The regional assistant secretaries would not exercise authority (or command) over combatant com- manders or their assigned forces in combat operations or other Title 10 missions assigned by the National Command Authority — the same limitation that already applies to chiefs of mission with respect to their country of assignment. However, the relevant re- gional assistant secretary would help the combatant com- manders develop their war plans and theater security cooperation plans. This arrangement would fulfill the long-expressed de- sire of the Department of Defense for an effective coun- terpart to their geographic commanders. It would also ensure close coordination between peacetime military engagement and political, economic and devel- opmental policies in each region. Like the 3-D approach articu- lated by Sec. Clinton, the support- ing thesis of a consolidated Depart- ment of State is the culmination of a great deal of study and discussion. Nearly two decades after the Cold War ended, a major restructuring of the organization and operating processes of the United States gov- ernment in the national security arena is long overdue. The traditional organization of freestanding departments and agencies of the federal government cannot effectively respond to a world that long ago burst out of stovepiped perspectives. The old question thus poses itself once again: If not now, then when? ■ F O C U S The reinvented Department of State would draw upon a combination of directive authority and procedural, human capital and cultural changes.