Recent terrorist events such as the attempted bomb attacks in New York's Times Square and aboard an airliner on Christmas Day 2009 are reminders that national security challenges have expanded beyond the traditional threats of the Cold War Era. Today's threats are diffuse and ambiguous, making it difficult for any single fed. agency to address them alone. Effective collaboration among multiple agencies and across fed., state, and local governments is critical. This testimony highlights opportunities to strengthen interagency collaboration by focusing on four key areas: (1) developing overarching strategies; (2) creating collaborative org.; (3) developing a well-trained workforce; and (4) improving info. sharing. Figures.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent agency that works for Congress. The GAO watches over Congress, and investigates how the federal government spends taxpayers dollars. The Comptroller General of the United States is the leader of the GAO, and is appointed to a 15-year term by the U.S. President. The GAO wants to support Congress, while at the same time doing right by the citizens of the United States. They audit, investigate, perform analyses, issue legal decisions and report anything that the government is doing. This is one of their reports.

National Security: Key Challenges and Solutions to Strengthen Interagency Collaboration

DoD's combatant commands, such as U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), play key roles in interagency collaboration. Both aim to build partner nation capacity and perform humanitarian assistance, while standing ready to perform military operations. SOUTHCOM supports U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the Americas and Caribbean in disrupting illicit trafficking and narco-terrorism. As DoD's newest command, AFRICOM works with U.S. diplomacy and development agencies on activities such as maritime security and pandemic response efforts. This testimony provides observations from ongoing work on U.S. counter-piracy efforts by focusing on 3 key areas essential for interagency collaboration.