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Neal Zimmerman |
Helping Others to Help Themselves
Neal Zimmerman
August 2007
To call Neal Zimmerman a seasoned traveler is something of an understatement.
During his 26-year Special Operations career prior to joining MITRE,
Zimmerman's work took him from the Middle East to Africa to several
former USSR states. Through this work, he became intimately familiar
with the nexus between terrorist financing, narcotics and WMD trafficking,
and border security. As a result, he developed strong opinions about
the potential for the U.S. government to improve security at home
by promoting peacekeeping and counter-narcotics efforts abroad.
"I consider these efforts a vital part of the away game," he says.
"If we can help emerging nations win the majority of the away games,
we will have less to contend with at our own borders—the home
game."
Today, as a principal multi-discipline systems engineer at MITRE,
Zimmerman is continuing his world travels. His work focuses on advancing
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiatives by "helping other
countries to help themselves."
"Capacity Building" in Africa and Beyond
"The buzzword term for this kind of work is 'capacity building,'"
Zimmerman explains. "In our work with nations in the African Union,
we're helping to develop centralized command and control centers
for peacekeeping operations and civil-military operations across
the African continent. Such endeavors are crucial for training local
officials to address problems such as ungoverned or ill-governed
states, and the illegal drug trade, which inevitably spill outside
their nations' borders," he adds.
What's more, particularly in developing countries, combining advanced
technical tools for border control with cultural and policy solutions
can be extremely difficult without the help of a third party such
as MITRE, Zimmerman says.
"If the objective is to stop the flow of narcotics to promote security,
increase trade and tourism, it's very difficult for many countries
to do this on their own," he says. "By collaborating with a company
like MITRE, they can learn how to put the different pieces of the
puzzle together. It is not just a technological solution. It needs
to be the right technology, in the right capable hands, at the right
time.
"Companies can provide communications systems, but if there is
not proper oversight to ensure they are the correct solutions and
that users are well trained, they've gotten nothing more than a
paperweight," Zimmerman adds. "We know the cultures, assist in laying
out the training plans, and mentor our allies on the use of these
systems and how to maintain them."
Helping Technology Evolve Along with Policy
Zimmerman says he's seen clear examples of the need for this type
of approach to systems engineering.
Of his 26 years in Special Operations, he spent 18 years in the
Middle East. In his latter years on active duty, he served in the
Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
crafting policies—some of which became law—concerning
counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism around the world. He also
crafted global peacekeeping plans as part of a joint U.S.-United
Nations effort. This work carried over when he served as the Special
Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and
Homeland Defense.
He says that through this work, he came to believe it's critical
for command and control system capabilities to be much more adaptable
to support changing policy objectives.
"By bringing our technological expertise to bear, along with cultural
and political savvy and local language capabilities, we can create
systems that are holistic and continue to meet users' needs as events
and policies change," he says.
Fostering Collaboration Around the World
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Neal Zimmerman on his
Harley-Davidson motorcycle |
Zimmerman supports MITRE's International Operations Council (IOC),
which fosters collaboration among the disparate elements of the
corporation's international work program. "The IOC provides a forum
for employees at MITRE to explore how they might work together to
help sponsors make sense of international trade regulations, to
pick one issue," he says. This effort is associated with the increasingly
international tenor of MITRE's work.
Through the IOC, staff members from throughout the company can
consult on areas where their sponsors' missions overlap. Ultimately,
these interactions have helped MITRE provide better value to sponsors
by improving interoperability of command and control systems and
reducing their cost, Zimmerman says.
His work with the IOC is focused on ensuring that MITRE's various
Department of Homeland Security-related programs are "more collaborative
than duplicative." He also scopes out new technologies that may
interest MITRE's sponsors.
Working Hard and Playing Hard
He's still on the road a good deal, but in his time at home, Zimmerman
also has a lot on his plate. As a volunteer with the Special Operations
Warrior Foundation, he helps to raise college education funds for
the children of fallen Special Operators, he says. Zimmerman also
volunteers with the Big Brother/Big Sister organization.
In between all this, he likes to take time to get outside. "I really
enjoy riding my Harley, playing with my three Labradors, and doing
all types of water sports," he says.
Tough but Rewarding Work
Zimmerman says that his time at MITRE, while challenging, has been
very rewarding because he's had the chance to apply nearly three
decades of high-level government experience to hands-on systems
engineering quandaries.
"I'm still very much engaged with the government, but from a different
angle now. Policies that I assisted in crafting are the same policies
that now allow much of this work to be taken on by the government
and MITRE around the globe. This is very much an extension of the
work I did while serving in Special Forces," he says.
—by Maria S. Lee
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