The Cornerstone of Joint Force Transformation: The Standing Joint Force Headquarters at U.S. Southern Command, 2001-2011.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld directed Department of Defense geographic combatant commands to create Standing Joint Force Headquarters to improve joint military operations and promote new approaches to joint warfighting. At U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), the expert deployable command and control unit contributed to almost every major U.S. military activity in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2004 and 2011. Yet chronic staff shortages and bureaucratic resistance limited its transformational potential. The small USSOUTHCOM unit exposed the big challenges of change in the Department of Defense during the early twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]