Simons Center News

The annual Angel Thunder exercise is sponsored by the Air Force’s Air Combat Command, and is the largest federal interagency exercise for personnel rescue and recovery.  Angel Thunder was founded in 2005 by former Air Force Rescue helicopter pilot Brett Hartnett, who describes the exercise as the “biggest bang for the buck in training dollars.”  The focus of Angel Thunder is saving lives…

The Government Accountability Office released a report in July of this year detailing the need for common alignment of world regions among certain U.S. federal agencies.  The report, GAO-11-776R, came as a response to Section 1055 of the Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, which required an assessment of the need for common alignment of world regions in federal departments and agencies with international responsibilities…

The July 2011 performance audit by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reports on U.S. efforts to improve the capacity of the Afghan government to regulate Afghanistan’s financial sector and to strengthen the controls U.S. agencies use to track U.S. funds in the Afghan economy…

Joint Interagency Task Force–South (JIATF–South) is well known within the U.S. Government as the “gold standard” for interagency cooperation and intelligence fusion.  It is often cited as a model for whole-of-government problem-solving, and other national security organizations have tried to copy its approach and successes…

The Col. Arthur D. Simons Center for the Study of Interagency Cooperation is pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 Faculty Writing Award…

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Sept. 12, 2011) The Col. Arthur D. Simons Center for the Study of Interagency Cooperation announces its Interagency Writing Competition for 2012.  The competition is open to the public and recognizes papers that provide insight and fresh thinking in advancing the knowledge, understanding, and practice of interagency coordination, cooperation, and collaboration at the tactical or operational level of effort…

The Simons Center is pleased to reveal the first installment of its interagency bibliography.  The bibliography is part of the Simons Center’s mission to foster and develop an interagency body of knowledge and boasts over 500 entries regarding interagency issues.  The bibliography includes reports from the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service, professional publications by subject matter experts, and academic research from both military and non-military institutions…

The Federal Government is currently undertaking a significant effort to eliminate counterfeit products from the U.S. Government supply chain. In June 2010, Vice President Biden and White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Victoria Espinel, announced the Joint Strategic Plan on Intellectual Property Enforcement, laying out a coordinated government-wide approach to strengthening intellectual property enforcement and directing the establishment of an inter-agency working group…

Sixty-six years since the Holocaust and 17 years after Rwanda, the United States still lacks a comprehensive policy framework and a corresponding interagency mechanism for preventing and responding to mass atrocities and genocide.  This has left the United States ill prepared to engage early, proactively, and decisively to prevent threats from evolving into large-scale civilian atrocities…

Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) recently revised and republished its SOF Interagency Counterterrorism Reference Manual.  In the past, the manual has provided a valuable reference for JSOU students, SOF staff officers, and partners in the interagency process…