Assess
The mission of the Joint Task Force North (JTFN) is to streamline and implement an effective Command and Control structure and policy for military support to counter-drug efforts and fight transnational organized crime (TCO). The vision of JTFN shall be to meet the objectives set by the Northern Command Commander and add value to Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (DLEAs) in addressing the illegal activities of TCOs. The mission and vision of JTFN cannot be achieved without the support of appropriate key internal and external stakeholders. The internal stakeholders include JTFN’s staff in El Paso and its headquarters, law enforcement agencies, the National Guard, and DLEAs. The key external stakeholder shall be the Government of Mexico through its military. The internal stakeholders are based in the U.S., and they are influenced by national laws and policy on drugs and transnational organized crimes.
Additionally, they are influenced by the amount of resources and skills available to them as well as collaboration between them. Domestic politics affect the way internal stakeholders fight against drugs and cross-border crimes to a relatively large extent. If the President and Congress do not provide enough support for these groups’ efforts, their work is greatly hampered. Another factor that affects the way internal stakeholders operate is the lack of cooperation with each other, failing to take advantage of the synergy that can be realized if they worked together. On the other hand, external stakeholders are influenced by the relationships between governments (Burbach & Carney, 2014). Mexico and the U.S. have not had a good diplomatic relationship since the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. Both sides are suspicious of each other, and this affects the efforts to counter drug trafficking and other crimes along their shared borders. JTFN’s core competencies are military capabilities and operational planning as well as intelligence analysis.
JTFN SWOT Analysis
Strengths
JTFN participates in Border Contact Meetings (BCM) with Mexican military which provides the former with valuable information in developing and executing their strategies.
The employees at JTFN have high morale, and they are highly experienced after working in the command for many years.
Weaknesses
JTFN does not get any support from Army North in achieving its mission.
The number of personnel assigned to JTFN is small when compared to the agency’s mandate, and they are divided over the role of the command to the DLEAs.
The budget allocation for JTFN is small and has not been increased for a while to account for changes which are occurring. Additionally, the command does not have clear metrics which would help to utilize the resources on the right things and achieve its mission.
Opportunities
Collaboration with other governmental agencies in using new technologies to support DLEAs to counter drugs and fight transnational organized crimes.
Elimination of Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) regulations which restrict the use of military technologies such as Unmanned Aerial System along the borders.
Threats
Lack of qualified personnel in new technologies will hamper efforts to collaborate with other government agencies.
Tightening of the FAA’s regulations will make it more difficult for the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems along the borders.
The absence of the legal definition of counter-drug detection and monitoring in the subterranean domain in the existing legal code.
The challenges to address in the command are a small budget, the process of approving the mission and expansive mission. Threats identified and which need to be mitigated are lack of skilled personnel in new technologies, too tight FAA’s regulations and unclear legal definition of counter-drug detection and monitoring. The weaknesses to be corrected include insufficient collaboration with other government agencies and inadequate personnel.
JTFN’s resources include $10 million annual budget allocation and 180 employees. The objective of JTFN’s processes is to counter drugs and fight transnational organized crime. The processes involve gathering intelligence from the ground and sharing it with DLEAs. Other processes of the command include offering operational support, general support, engineering support, technology integration and interagency synchronization to DLEAs.
Decide
The biggest challenges that are likely to hamper the accomplishment of JTFN’s objectives are an insufficient collaboration with other government agencies, small budget allocation, and too tight FAA’s regulations. The command cannot succeed without working hand in hand with other government agencies since drug cartels and TCOs were working as networks, and they could only be defeated if all agencies tasked to fight them worked as a network as well. Additionally, the small budget restricts JTFN on what it can do. The organization does not have the resources to clearly define the problems it is addressing and this affects its ability to pursue complex and underground network that it is expected to deal with (Sopko, 2016 ). The FAA’s regulations to limit the use of UAS are significantly hampering efforts to use these technologies along the borders.
The decision environment for Colonel Tim Killian is friendly because the morale of employees seems high and they have valuable information about command’s role in the fight against drugs and TOCs. However, the culture of status quo is deeply rooted, and people have accepted it as a way of doing business. The people seem contented with the small changes that have been taking place in priorities even though there are successes and failures. The biggest challenge is the rift among employees on the role of JTFN to DLEAs. Furthermore, there are concerns that other government agencies may not approve the decisions that would be made at JTFN especially those of the change of FAA’s regulations and the increase in budget allocation.
Create a small team to identify areas which the command would need to improve collaboration with other government agencies.
Reinstate its regular membership to Alliance to Combat Transnational Threat.
Support Dr. Rick Morton in his efforts to establish additional sources of funds.
Request the budget office to prepare JTFN’s annual estimates and present them to the Budget Review Board for additional budget allocation.
Write to FAA and require them to review their regulations on the use of UAS and explain why the current policies affect the command’s mission and vision.
Lobby other relevant agencies to make FAA to change the regulations which hinder the use of technology in countering drug and fighting cross-border crimes.
The criteria to be used to compare the course of actions are validity, reliability, and practicality. It would be essential that the criteria apply to the current challenges facing JTFN. Additionally, the criteria should be able to be applied effectively using the existing resources and processes. If the criteria and not compatible with the existing command structure will fail. Finally, the criteria should receive support from both internal and external stakeholders. The courses of actions that will help to achieve the mission goals are to create a team to identify areas which the command would need to improve collaboration with other government agencies, request the budget office to prepare JTFN’s annual estimates and present them to the BRB for more budget allocation, and lobby other relevant agencies to request FAA to change the regulations which hinder use of technology in countering drug and fighting cross-border crimes.
Risk management activities would include diversifying the sources of funding, transferring some responsibilities to other agencies and developing technologies to replace UAS.
The scope of the JTFN should be scaled down to only include operational support, intelligence support, and engineering support. Dealing with few categories of activities will increase the command’s efficiency. Additionally, it will ensure that the resources allocated are enough to provide these services to the DLEAs (Burbach & Carney, 2014). Assuming that the $10 million budget allocation will remain, $5 million should be used for intelligence support, $3 million for operational support, and $2 million for engineering support.
Implement
The objectives shall be to enter into ten formal agreements with other government agencies that deal with countering drug and fighting TOCs in three years, increase JTFN’s budget allocation from current $10 million to $15 million in the following three years and ensure that all FAA’s regulations which hinder use of UAS are eliminated in the next three years. The objectives shall be achieved by the JTFN under the leadership of JTFN Chief of Staff, Colonel Forrest Stark. Stark shall provide the overall oversight while J-5 Policy Director, Tim Killian will be responsible for the execution of the strategy at El Paso Command in Texas. Killian shall be assisted to implement the strategy by his Deputy, Pete Lear among other people in working in command. All these people are expected to start implementation of the strategy in January 2017 and complete in January 2020. It is important to ensure that the implementation process succeeds as this will ensure that the JTFN provide the most appropriate support to DLEAs and ultimately help to reduce the cases of drug trafficking and cross-border organized crimes (Sopko, 2016 ). The objectives shall be achieved by developing monitoring and control criteria for each of goal set at the beginning of the implementation of the strategy.
The actions that will align the strategy with the goals include communicating with employees about the strategy, mobilizing necessary resources, creating an implementation team, and seeking support from the headquarters. The means for the execution of the strategy are the JTFN’s staff, the current processes, and policies, the command structure, and technology. It will be difficult to implement the changes in command of all the stakeholders will not support it. Hence, the implementation team will negotiate with each stakeholder group to ensure that they appreciate all aspects of the strategy. Some stakeholders have a lot of power, and they may influence the implementation of the plan. In response to this challenge, the implementation team shall ensure that they first get support from such groups. Internal stakeholders are likely to oppose the move because of fear that the status quo shall be disrupted. Thus, it will be important to engage them during the planning stage to gain their trust and empower them to be part of the implementation process.
Assure
The metrics required for the courses of actions to achieve result include the number of formal agreements entered by JTFN, the increase in budget allocation, and some regulations removed by FAA. The belief systems to be used during the implementation of the plan include employee training, the reward for activities which are aligned to the achievement of the objective and supporting new ideas within the command. The boundary systems will involve the introduction of command’s policies procedures which guide all the employees. The policies will include extensive of annual budgets to guide the use of resources allocated and variance reports to reduce wastages (Burbach & Carney, 2014). The command shall develop standard procedures for all its activities to reduce errors and mistakes during execution.
Diagnostic systems shall include monthly reports to the J-5 Policy Director who will then submit a summary of the report to the chief of staff at the headquarters. The Policy Director shall review the execution of the strategy through the reports and make recommendations for any changes to ensure that the process is on course. Other diagnostics mechanisms shall include regular review of the actual results and planned outcomes by the implementation team. After identifying any variances, the team shall submit a report to the Policy Director who will make recommendations on improvements and seek advice from the Chief of Staff on issues he shall find challenging for him to handle. Interactive controls shall include the acquisition of reports prepared by other agencies which fight drugs and cross-border crimes (Zimmerman, Egel, & Blum, 2016). The information from these agencies shall be used to monitor trends in this areas and identify threats may affect the implementation of the strategy. Additionally, by collaborating with other agencies, JTFN shall be able to access important information about the threats and opportunities that may influence the command’s objectives and its ability to respond to new challenges in an effective manner.
References
Burbach, D., & Carney, R. (2014, August ). Levels Of Analysis: Conceptual Approach To Understanding National Security Affairs . Retrieved From The United States Naval War College College Of Distance Education: file:///C:/Users/hp/Downloads/TSDM%201-1%20Levels%20of%20Analysis.pdf
Sopko, J. (2016 , January 20 ). DOD Task Force for Business and Stability Operations in Afghanistan: Preliminary Results Show Serious Management and Oversight Problems. Retrieved from SIGAR: https://www.sigar.mil/pdf/testimony/SIGAR-16-14-TY.pdf
Zimmerman, S., Egel, D., & Blum, I. (2016). Task Force for Business and Stability Operations: Lessons from Afghanistan. Arlington, Virginia: Rand Corporation.
