"Maintain course and speed..." command and control for maritime homeland security and homeland defense

Abstract

Since 11 September 2001, a number of authorities have provided definitions for both Homeland Security (HS) and Homeland Defense (HD), however, as the definitions develop, they provide less functional detail. The most often asked question posed to professionals in the field is "what is the distinction between the Homeland Security mission and the Homeland Defense mission." What they are really asking is, in a particular scenario, "who's in charge of the operation?" "When is it law enforcement, or non-military, and when is it a military operation"? Many have argued that the command structure between the two Services needs to be changed to ensure the seam between HS and HD is minimized. This is a natural approach because command and control is possibly the most important of all operational functions. The objective of this thesis is to argue that the Navy and Coast Guard should not establish a joint interagency command structure for the missions of Homeland Security and Homeland Defense. They should continue to coordinate and support one another, when required, but they should not combine the two Services together into a permanent single organization.