Renewed Cooperation Between Law Enforcement, Military Necessary to Secure U.S. Borders Gist of Jan. 19 Lecture at Pitt

PITTSBURGH—Renewed cooperation between law enforcement and the military is needed to increase border security in the United States, according to Bert B. Tussing, director of the Center for Strategic Leadership of the U.S. Army War College.

Tussing will address the new challenges presented along the U.S. borders as a result of organized crime and international terrorism in a free lecture at 3 p.m. Jan. 19 titled “The Evolving Role of the Military in Border Security.” Hosted by the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for National Preparedness (CNP), the lecture will be held in Pitt’s Alumni Hall, Room 532, 227 Fifth Ave., Oakland. 

Tussing will discuss the need to reevaluate the roles of individual states’ National Guards and the U.S. Northern Command, a unified command of military forces established in 2002 to coordinate defense support among local, state, and federal authorities in order to meet emerging border-security issues. 

Tussing is an expert on homeland defense, terrorism, and the U.S. Congress and military policy. In 2004, he was invited to serve on a senior advisory group to develop a comprehensive strategy for homeland security for the U.S. Department of Defense. During a highly decorated 24-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps, he participated in multiple operations, including humanitarian relief exercises in the Caribbean; Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada; operations as a part of the Multinational Force in Beirut; operations Provide Promise and Deny Flight in Bosnia; and the final withdrawal of U.S. forces from Somalia. He was a Marine Corps analyst to the Secretary of the Navy in the Office of Program Appraisal and to the Deputy Legislative Assistant to the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  

He is a senior fellow at George Washington University’s Homeland Security Policy Institute, a senior fellow and adjunct faculty member of Long Island University’s Homeland Security Management Institute, and a member of the Board of Experts of the University of California-Irvine’s Center for Unconventional Security Affairs. Tussing received a bachelor’s degree with honors from The Citadel in 1975 and master’s degrees from the Naval War College and the Army War College. He is a reviewing editor for both the Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Homeland Security Affairs Journal.

The CNP is an interdisciplinary collaboration of experts and departments at Pitt. It provides research, education, and service aimed at advancing the science, policy, and implementation of effective federal, state, and local preparedness efforts across the public and private sectors. For more information, visit www.cnp.pitt.edu.

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