Collaboration and Information Sharing Within HSINT
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Collaboration and Information Sharing Within HSINT
Since the renowned 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress has focused its considerable attention on how intelligence should be collected, analyzed, and disseminated to protect the extensive homeland against serious terrorist threats. Since its establishment, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has faced many challenges associated with the vertical and horizontal integration of such different management functions.
However, conferring to U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the largest horizontal challenge that has been preventing effective collaboration or sharing of information has been that the DHS Intelligence Enterprise has never been as valuable and effective to the integrated circuit (IC) as it should be. For instance, according to Clark (2015), the legal issues that have been occurring it that there has been an absence of unity across DHS Intelligence Enterprise, issues with I&A staffing levels especially in the field, problems with the product review in internal intelligence and the approval processes, as well as difficulty in accessing confidential systems and other facilities in the field.
The largest vertical obstacle preventing effective collaboration or sharing of information within HSINT has been that since both the DHS and FBI have counterterrorism-associated missions and role in collecting and disseminating the counterterrorism information, some FBI and DHS officials have expressed some concerns on potential overlaps in the counterterrorism activities and missions (Clark, 2015). The legal issue here is that DHS functions by using the matrix management approach; the challenge tends to arise in terms of confusion regarding turf battles, authorities, and accountability loss.
The solutions that can be used to overcome these obstacles and ensure effective inter and intra-agency collaboration for intelligence support to the HSE includes all partners to understand and even value the roles and the contributions of other partners (Gardner, 2017). Besides, to attain a shared vision and nurture better and more consistent cooperation, all entities involved in counterterrorism need to standardize processes and practices while updating and implementing information-sharing arrangements.
References
Clark, C.S. (2015, November 10). Homeland Security Leaders See Progress in ‘Unity of Effort’ Government Executive. Retrieved from;
Gardner, J. (2017). A Duty to Share: The Opportunities and Obstacles of Federal Counterterrorism Intelligence Sharing with Nonfederal Fusion Centers. Walden University Dissertation.
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). n.d. Terrorism-Related Information Sharing – High-Risk Issue. Retrieved from;
https://www.gao.gov/key_issues/terrorism_related_information_sharing/issue_summary#t=0