Enhancing unity of effort in homeland defense, homeland security, and civil support through interdisciplinary education

Abstract

Whether in prevention of or response to a natural disaster or act of terrorism, overseas or on American soil, unity of effort among multi-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional operations is essential. Unity of effort goes beyond cooperation or teamwork to include the concepts of communication using a commonly accepted language; understanding roles, missions, authorities, responsibilities, capabilities, and gaps; information sharing; interoperability; and relationship building and collaboration. This thesis highlights the importance of unity of effort, its challenges, and the contributions of interdisciplinary education to building collaborative capacity in meta-discipline environments. The intricacies of homeland defense, homeland security, and civil support necessitate the adaptation of military and national security professional education to incorporate interdisciplinary concepts. The shared learning environments present in the health care meta-discipline are explored for correlations to interdisciplinary homeland defense and security education. The Center for Homeland Defense and Security program is examined to identify contributions of interdisciplinary education to enhancing unity of effort among homeland defense and homeland security stakeholders. By integrating a variety of strategies and reports, this research serves to acknowledge the collaborative capacity built via multi-jurisdictional, interdisciplinary education as a method to enhance unity of effort and build a cadre of military and national security professionals.