Reorganizing Government to meet hybrid threats

Read my guest post over at the Stimson Center’s Budget Insight blog titled Hybrid Government:

Nine years ago we went to war with the enemy we had, not the enemy we wanted. For several years after 9/11 we struggled to comprehend how military superiority failed to translate into strategic victory. We created labels like “irregular” and “hybrid” to describe adversaries that did not conform to our structured view of international affairs shaped by the second half of the Cold War. Today, conflict is democratized, not in the sense of bicameral legislatures but strategic influence in the hands of non-state actors empowered by falling barriers to information acquisition, packaging and dissemination as well as easy access to the means of destruction and disruption, physical and virtual.

Calls for “smart power” and a “whole of government” approach has resulted in countless articles, memos, and reports on updating the State Department, the Defense Department, and other agencies to confront the challenges of today and tomorrow. The focus on improving the operational elements of national power, while necessary, ignores a critical national security actor that has received little to no attention or pressure to adapt to the new and emerging requirements: Congress.

Read the whole thing here. Comment there or below.

2 thoughts on “Reorganizing Government to meet hybrid threats

  1. Matt, why don’t you just come out and say that you think representative democracy (you call it a “scheme” I think) is soooo 20th century, and that to protect ourselves today we need to hand the keys of this thing over to the Defense Department? Forgive me if I’m misinterpreting what you mean by “blended authority”.

  2. Jeff,You are most certainly misinterpreting what I mean by blended authority. You need to reread this post as well as every similar blog post and article I’ve written. Help me understand how you even came to the conclusion that I even suggest “we need to hand the keys of this thing over to the Defense Department.” My arguments here on this blog, in articles and reports, and in my presentations have always pushed to get the keys away from DoD.
    The blended authority in this article is about breaking – or at least better connecting – the stovepipes in Congress that prevent proper oversight and effective use of resources.
    Matt

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