From Patchwork to Framework

" "The accelerated proliferation of legislative authorities for the Department of Defense (DoD) in Public Law and Title 10 of the U.S. Code since September 11, 2011, has created an increasingly unwieldy and complex catalog of statutes, which has generated severe challenges to DoD's security cooperation activities. The large set of authorities for security cooperation has become known as a "patchwork" because of the need to patch together multiple authorities and associated yet unsynchronized processes, resources, programs, and organizations to execute individual initiatives with partner nations. As defense headquarter staffs shrink and planning grows increasingly complex, the risk of canceled or ineffective events has grown significantly. Moreover, policymakers and congressional staffers face growing challenges providing guidance and oversight and evaluating progress toward larger objectives. This report develops a framework and options to streamline the patchwork of authorities in Public Law and Title 10 of the U.S. Code that the DoD employs for security cooperation with partner nations. The objective is to frame Title 10 security cooperation authorities in a holistic, logical way, identify redundancies and gaps, and offer recommendations for changes in authorities that reduce the complexities involved in implementing them and make it easier for DoD's security cooperation workforce to use them to work with partner nations in support of U.S.