Strategic Perspectives No. 5 / June 2011

Joint Interagency Task Force–South: The Best Known, Least Understood Interagency Success
by Evan Munsing and Christopher J. Lamb

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 in the literature on interagency collaboration, and other national security organizations have tried to copy its approach and successes. This study attempts to fill the gap in knowledge about JIATF–South as a model for crossorganizational collaboration. It traces the evolution of the task force from its roots in the «War on Drugs» in the 1980s, through its original manifestation as Joint Task Force–4 in the early 1990s and its later reinvention as Joint Interagency Task Force–East (and still later, its renaming as JIATF–South), up until the present day. It then examines how JIATF–South actually works with the help of 10 organizational performance variables taken from organizational and management research on cross-functional teams. Investigating JIATF–South’s performance through these different organizational lenses, and weighing the importance of each variable in light of JIATF–South’s historical experience, yields a compelling explanation for JIATF–South’s stellar performance. The results contribute to a better understanding of interagency teams and help answer the pressing question of whether successes like JIATF–South can be replicated elsewhere in the national security system.

In the issue:

•  Interagency Coordination and Cross-functional Teams
•  Drugs as a National Security Problem
•  Legislative Solutions
•  JIATF–South’s Predecessor: Joint Task Force–4
•  Early Years of the JIATFs: 1994 to 1998
•  JIATF–East Lays the Foundation for JIATF–South: 1999 to 2003
•  JIATF–South: The “Gold Standard” for Interagency Operations
•  Performance Variables
•  Maintaining Effectiveness: 2004 to Present
•  Lessons from JIATF–South Experience

And other topics

Joint Interagency Task Force–South: The Best Known, Least Understood Interagency Success
by Evan Munsing and Christopher J. Lamb

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 in the literature on interagency collaboration, and other national security organizations have tried to copy its approach and successes. This study attempts to fill the gap in knowledge about JIATF–South as a model for crossorganizational collaboration. It traces the evolution of the task force from its roots in the «War on Drugs» in the 1980s, through its original manifestation as Joint Task Force–4 in the early 1990s and its later reinvention as Joint Interagency Task Force–East (and still later, its renaming as JIATF–South), up until the present day. It then examines how JIATF–South actually works with the help of 10 organizational performance variables taken from organizational and management research on cross-functional teams. Investigating JIATF–South’s performance through these different organizational lenses, and weighing the importance of each variable in light of JIATF–South’s historical experience, yields a compelling explanation for JIATF–South’s stellar performance. The results contribute to a better understanding of interagency teams and help answer the pressing question of whether successes like JIATF–South can be replicated elsewhere in the national security system.