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Aug 3, 2021

Making the Case for Fusion Cells

Written by: Christopher Fussell, Eleanor McDonald, Jennifer Keister & Keith Pellegrini

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A Fusion Cell can connect key organizations to share information and co-develop decision support for government leaders at a local, metropolitan, region or state-level. Connecting these fusion cells into a national network can create a nervous system for information flow that is unhampered by bureaucracy or state boundaries, and able to keep pace with the network spread of COVID-19.

COVID-19 doesn’t care about bureaucracy. It is a network problem, and will follow network rules. State and local governments must adopt aspects of network methodology if they hope to keep pace with the network-spread of this disease.

Fusion Cells were originally designed to combine US military, intelligence and law enforcement resources into a unified network to beat the Al Qaeda network, first in Afghanistan, then Iraq, and then globally. Like Al Qaeda, COVID-19 is an opportunistic enemy—it attacks ruthlessly and without warning. It doesn’t respect city, county, state or international boundaries and doesn’t care whether we are at work or play. A network-response will require reaching across jurisdictional and agency boundaries, coordination between non-standard partners, and the willingness to employ creative tools to be successful.

A Fusion Cell can, with a very small footprint, connect key organizations to share information and co-develop decision support for government leaders at a local, metropolitan, region or state-level. Connecting these fusion cells into a national network can create a nervous system for information flow that is unhampered by bureaucracy or state boundaries, and able to keep pace with the network spread of COVID-19.

The following Field Manual will provide you with a better understanding of what a Fusion Cell is, how it works, and ways to best deploy a Fusion Cell in your network.

Making the Case for Fusion Cells

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