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In this episode of the At the Boundary podcast, GNSI’s Senior Director, Jim Cardoso, interviewed Fabio van Loon about his latest publication on the topic of the pitfalls and challenges of U.S. foreign policy, specifically with interagency coordination.

Fabio explained his paper’s focus on three different presidents and their national security advisors, from Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger to Jimmy Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski, and George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice. He homed in on the major security and foreign policy decisions of their terms and shared that clear interagency coordination is foundational for a country and its agencies to be successful in their missions. Some challenges to coordination may be conflicting personalities and disunity in command.

The author also explained the challenges that come with managing wars, such as in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and how both the CORDS and Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) programs aided or hindered strategic efforts. Towards the end of the episode, he highlighted three solutions for interagency disjunction and reiterated the importance of operational unity within government agencies.

Links from the episode:

• Florida Security Forum: Port and Maritime Security Registration

• “Trickle-Down Coordination: The National Security Advisor’s Role as the Strategic and Operational Planner of the DoD-DoS Interagency Relationship” by Fabio S. van Loon

• Axis of Resistance Episode 8: General (ret) Frank McKenzie Interview

At the Boundary from the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida, features global and national security issues we’ve found to be insightful, intriguing, fascinating, maybe controversial, but overall just worth talking about.

A "boundary" is a place, either literal or figurative, where two forces exist in close proximity to each other. Sometimes that boundary is in a state of harmony. More often than not, that boundary has a bit of chaos baked in. The Global and National Security Institute will live on the boundary of security policy and technology and that's where this podcast will focus.

The mission of GNSI is to provide actionable solutions to 21st-century security challenges for decision-makers at the local, state, national and global levels. We hope you enjoy At the Boundary.

Look for our other publications and products on our website publications page.

9 Oct 2025 Aaron McPherson of AFM on Stablecoins, Agentic AI, and Making Music