Dale, Catherine

Dale, Catherine. Building an Interagency Cadre of National Security Professionals: Proposals, Recent Experience, and Issues for Congress. CRS Report for Congress RL34565. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, July 2008. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL34565.pdf (accessed 26 July 2011).

This report focuses primarily on analyzing key issues that Members of Congress may wish to consider in evaluating existing or proposed National Security Professional (NSP) initiatives, including the fundamental purpose; the concept of integration; the scope of participation; practical modalities for making the program work; the role of centralized oversight; incentive structures for individuals and agencies; recruiting; and congressional oversight. For context, the report also describes early NSP proposals; U.S. government strategic guidance; the experiences of the National Security Professional Development (NSPD) program to date; and significant congressional initiatives. It makes illustrative use of the military’s Joint Qualification System, perhaps the closest U.S. government analogue.