The United States has one of the world’s largest militaries, but there’s a lesson it could learn from one of the smallest.
Norway takes a whole-of-government approach to defend the second-longest coastline in the world: civilian and military officials working closely to protect against crises and war.
Civilian infrastructure, such as ports, roads, and telecommunications, is designed to support the military in times of conflict. Municipalities update bomb shelters and stockpile vital supplies in coordination with the military. In the event of war, Norway’s relatively small military can legally mobilize citizens for help with firefighting or healthcare, Richman noted.
“They don’t think about military and civilian as separate. They think of them as together,” said Sam Richman, Principal Chief Architect for Global Defense at Red Hat, who spoke recently at an event hosted by the USC Price Center of National Defense and Public Safety. “So when there’s a problem, everyone gets involved. Telecommunications, airports, roads – all these things are critical to the military, so these stakeholders in the civilian world have to work with the military. They have to, or else it fails.”
Richman’s presentation on Norway – during a center event on missile defense at USC’s Capital Campus in Washington, D.C. – fits well with the research center’s goal of closer collaboration between military and local government. While our federalism empowers states and local jurisdictions, gaps persist in emergency management during extreme crises.
Launched last year, the Center of National Defense and Public Safety seeks to close gaps between civilian and military professionals to better coordinate responses to disasters, from pandemics and wildfires to cyberattacks, missile, and drone strikes. The new center brings professionals from local government, law enforcement, and the military under one metaphorical roof to deepen partnerships.
The missile defense event—the center’s inaugural Innovation Summit—brought them all under one literal roof for a day in the nation’s capital. Speakers included USC Price School Professor Frank Zerunyan, a five-term mayor and councilmember in the City of Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., and the center’s Executive Director; retired U.S. Army Gen. Charles Flynn; retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Ronald Fritzemeier, currently Director of Mission Solutions at Intel; Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) board member retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery; former fighter pilot and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO, Tom Goffus; and Riki Ellison, founder and chairman of the MDAA and a highly decorated former USC linebacker.
“A lot of wicked problems that we all face as a society do not necessarily reside in one sector, and the solutions do not reside in one sector,” Zerunyan said. “Governance means the collaboration of all these sectors to come together to bring their know-how and their assets to be able to solve those wicked problems, and that’s what gave rise to us founding this new center about a year ago.”
The event featured presentations ranging from the state of the Ukraine-Russia war to the proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense system for the United States. Ellison cited Iran’s ability to successfully attack U.S. bases during Operation Epic Fury as an example of the need to bolster roles and responsibilities as well as collaboration in missile defense.
“Twenty of our bases had been hit by drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles,” he noted. “We have a real problem, and we’re not going to float around it like we’ve done the last 30 years because the tipping point has happened and change has to happen.”
In addition to civilian and military professionals, audience members included dozens of people from the private sector who want to collaborate, too.
“The purpose of the event was really to bring together this triad of thought leaders from industry, academia, and government,” said Stephen Gordon, Red Hat’s Director of Special Programs for the Department of Defense. “Talk through some of the dilemmas related to missile defense that this collective can help solve in a much more rapid manner than has been traditionally done before.”
