The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2008

10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 8 National Security Infrastructure: Due for an Update? On April 18 the Congressional Research Service released its latest report on national security, “Organiz- ing the U.S. Government for National Security: Overview of the Interagency Reform Debates” ( www.fas.org/sgp/ crs/natsec/RL34455.pdf ). Senior officials in the executive branch, vari- ous think-tanks and members of Con- gress are among those calling for a sig- nificant restructuring of the American security model. This group argues that today’s 20th- century bureaucratic superstructure is outdated, an “inadequate basis for pro- tecting the nation from 21st-century security challenges.” They cite the failures of coordination and imple- mentation in Operation Iraqi Free- dom, Operation Enduring Freedom and the response to Hurricane Ka- trina. These shortcomings have had a serious effect on the results of those missions and on the reputation of the United States. Both Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condo- leezza Rice have called for reforms. At an April 15 House Armed Services Committee hearing, Gates challenged the members to “think about how to restructure the national security appa- ratus of the government for the long term.” Think-tanks that have joined this effort include the Project on National Security Reform ( www.pnsr.org ) and the Center for a New American Security ( www.cnas.org ) . Both rep- resent nonpartisan interest groups devoted to an overhaul of the current national security system. The founder of PNSR, James Locher III, directed the development of the Goldwater-Nichols legislation in the 1980s. His organization’s goal is to once more craft new legislation, this time in the form of a new National Security Act. Meanwhile, on June 2, CNAS held a conference, “Pivot Point: New Directions for American Security,” which focused on ways to address these challenges. An event transcript is avail- able at www.cnas.org/june2008/ . The Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Armed Services Committee are also part of this effort. The HASC has held a series of hearings on the issue, and, according to the CRS report, SFRC Chairman Joseph Biden “explicitly stated an interest in coming up with a ‘2009 National Security Act.’” This would replace the National Security Act of 1947, designed to meet the specific needs of a post-World War II, the last major organizational reform in this realm. Besides inadequate interagency coordination, criticisms of the current structure center on the imbalance between the Department of Defense and the State Department and other C YBERNOTES Site of the Month: www.docuticker.com As a librarian and the director of Online Information Resources at Ask.com, Gary Price has spent his career seeking out Internet resources for people, sort- ing through the overwhelming amount of information available online and nar- rowing it down to the best research sources around. This master of library and information science founded Docuticker as an independent venture in 2004. Docuticker describes itself as offering “a hand-picked selection of resources, reports and publications from government agencies, NGOs, think-tanks and other public interest organizations.” Recent reports have included an FBI report on immigration applications and petitions, a New America Foundation report on employer health costs in a global economy, and a RAND corporation study on the persistent Taliban threat in Pakistan. Users can either subscribe to the free, weekly newsletter (sent straight to their e-mail inbox) or visit the site and use the simple search function in the upper right-hand corner. By specifying date or subject, users can browse for the most relevant reports and documents released in any given month over the last four years. Alternatively, users can simply type one word or phrase, such as “human rights,” “globalization” or “national security,” and see all relevant docu- ments. Each post features an abstract taken directly from the source and a link to the free, full-text document. Updated on a daily basis, Docuticker is a quality resource for both periodic Web browsing and more substantial research. Ariana Austin, Editorial Intern