The Allen Doctrine

In a wide-ranging interview with Government Executive May 2, Adm. Thad W. Allen discussed his view of the Coast Guard's evolving security role and his plans for the service upon becoming commandant at the end of the month. Excerpts follow:

On reorganizing deployable Coast Guard units:

We have for different reasons over a number of years built teams and detachments that are deployable that have always been stovepiped into different mission areas. My goal would be to take all of those and put them under one force structure and use that force structure to integrate with the Department of Homeland security and create a more agile, flexible force that could deploy in advance of an event if you knew it was coming, or after an event to mitigate any threats or hazards. [It's] a more efficient way to organize, a more effective way to deploy in a post-[Hurricane] Katrina environment and a better way to mesh with the other operating agencies in DHS.