National Security Interagency Collaboration Practices And Challenges At Dods Southern And Africa

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.