Professional Society Prepares to Help Resolve Systemic National Security Issues

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- This past week, the Commission for the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism released a report titled, Report Card: Government Failing to Protect America from Grave Threats of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism.  This candid, bi-partisan assessment serves as yet another stark reminder to the American Public that many facets of the national security enterprise are still broken and in need of a significant overhaul - particularly in the development of qualified personnel working together on critical national security issues.  As indicated in the Report Card, the federal government received a grade of F in the recommendation to "Implement education and training programs to recruit and retain the next generation of national security experts."

Developing a cadre of qualified national security experts is not a new idea.  As we saw with reconstruction efforts in Iraq , the federal interagency workforce was not prepared to work together in support of complex contingency operations overseas.  Again in 2005, we witnessed the same issues with the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.  In an effort to resolve this problem in 2007, the Bush Administration issued Executive Order 13434 creating the National Security Professional Concept for federal employees. To implement the order, the National Security Professional Development Integration Office was created and their efforts have been centered around the development of a small group of senior level federal executives. Over the past three years little information has been made available to the public regarding the progress of the NSPD Integration Office's efforts.

However, the National Security Professional concept remains valid despite the slow implementation within the federal government.  The NSP concept received favorable reviews in recent reports released by the Government Accountability Office (Interagency Collaboration, September 2009) and in a detailed report from the Congressionally funded Project for National Security Reform (Turning Ideas Into Action, September 2009).

The Society of National Security Professionals was recently created to help support the federal efforts to implement this important concept and to include larger demographic including members of the military, private industry and academia. The Society of National Security Professionals is a professional society chartered to improve professional development, provide virtual mentoring opportunities for current, future and past practitioners and create a forum for information sharing and collaboration. Most importantly the society will establish professional standards through a rigorous certification process that ensures only the nation's top professionals are practicing in the national security profession. The Society of National Security Professionals is working with think tanks, members of Congress and academia to gain support for their efforts. To join the Society of National Security Professionals or to obtain additional information please visit their website at www.sonsp.org.

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SOURCE Society Of National Security Professionals