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In 1999, the President, Secretary of State, and members of Congress commissioned a blue ribbon panel, the Overseas Presence Advisory Panel (OPAP), to assess needs and make recommendations for improving our ability to conduct foreign affairs overseas. OPAP’s November 1999 report begins: “The United States overseas presence, which has provided the essential underpinnings of U.S. foreign policy for many decades, is near a state of crisis. Insecure and often decrepit facilities, obsolete information technology, outmoded administrative and human resources practices, poor allocation of resources, and competition from the private sector for talented staff threaten to cripple our nation’s overseas capability, with far-reaching consequences for national security and prosperity.” (Download report [PDF])

Among its key recommendations, the report proposes the creation of a common operating platform to enable the more than 40 agencies operating in nearly 200 countries to increase U.S. global engagement and influence in an increasingly complex and dangerous world. A few months after the November release of the report, the Department of State proposed creating a “collaboration zone,” providing a common platform for the worldwide diplomatic community. On June 22, 2000, because of MITRE’s extensive systems engineering and research involvement in distributed collaboration systems (see The Edge Collaboration issue), MITRE testified as the industry expert before the Congressional Committee on International Relations, alongside the Department of State Chief Information Officer, the Head of Diplomatic Services, and the General Accounting Office. MITRE’s statements and recommendations to Congress included:

1. Collaboration and knowledge management technologies offer great promise for helping to create a common platform to enhance our overseas presence across multiple countries and operating agencies.
2. The infrastructure must be secure to manage risk.
3. Success comes from a step-by-step creation of a solution with milestones leading toward the implementation of a clear vision with explicit objectives and measured outcomes.
4. Effective collaboration between technical and operational experts and organizational commitment are necessary for success.
5. Cultural change is required to fully realize business process improvements.

Establishing a system to support the varied needs of more than 40 agencies in nearly 200 countries with varied communications infrastructure is a great challenge for the foreign affairs community. MITRE continues to share its knowledge with key decision makers. For example, the Chairman of the International Relations Committee, Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-NY), requested that MITRE share its extensive collaboration knowledge with Department of State executives. Acting in the public interest, MITRE held a series of technical exchanges at MITRE and the Department of State with former Undersecretary of Management Bonnie Cohen, Chief Information Officer Fernando Burbano, and senior intelligence personnel to share MITRE’s corporate expertise in the areas of extranets, expert finding, and automated information management.

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