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Tip
Sheet: Business, Law & Economics Tip sheets highlight timely news and events at Washington University in St. Louis. For more information on any of the stories below or for assistance in arranging interviews, please see the contact information listed with each story. For comments on the Business, Law & Economics news tips service, please contact the editor, Robert Batterson at (314) 935-5202 or batterson@olin.wustl.edu. New Department of Homeland Security may take years to get organized Media assistance: Gerry Everding - (314) 935-6375 Source: James Davis - (314) 935-5828 [St. Louis, Mo. Dec. '02/Jan. '03] -It may take years before the new Department of Homeland Security organizes into an effective response to terrorism, according to James W. Davis, a professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis. Davis cautions that "organizational charts and stationary are much easier to change than organizational cultures."
"It will take years before we know whether creating a Department of Homeland Security has been an effective response to terrorism, or simply an exercise in political symbolism," Davis said. "Organizational charts and stationery are much easier to change than organizational cultures. As the FBI clearly illustrates, the transformation from a crime fighting organization to an intelligence and counter terrorism organization is not simple and may indeed be resisted." Davis notes that many of the organizations now incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security have their own traditions and lengthy histories. Getting them to refocus and become a team will be a major challenge, he said. "The Department of Defense was created from separate military services more than 50 years ago, and inter-service rivalry is still alive and well," Davis said. It is important not to overlook, said Davis, that the CIA, the FBI, and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will continue to exist as entities separate from the Department of Homeland Security. Equally confusing, he adds, is that the Department of Defense, with its many intelligence operations -- most importantly the National Security Agency with its communications intercept, translation, and decoding activities -- is not an official part of the new Homeland Security operation. Although, in reality, it obviously has some role to play. The modern reality of globalization, said Davis, is that homeland and foreign are now two sides of the same security coin. "And to the complexities of bureaucratic politics must be added the reality of congressional politics," Davis said. "There are lots of committees and subcommittees with their own points of view and preferences. And then there are appropriations which must go through Congress. The new Department doesn't yet have an appropriation for this year." "All in all we can only cross our fingers and hope for the best," Davis concludes. |
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