Using a Fusion Center Model to Manage and Improve Border Security

Recent civil wars have led to a mass migration movement of people attempting to escape their homeland. This has left many nations scrambling to devise not only how they are going to manage the considerable influx of refugees, but also how to secure the borders so that criminals do not take advantage of this situation to enter states at a vulnerable time. The following article examines one of the most well-researched borders, the southwest border of the United States to argue that countries can use a U.S. fusion center model to improve border security and thus gather information to analyze from a variety of sources in order to develop more targeted intelligence that better assesses the threats each country faces at the border. We begin with a background and discussion of the challenges facing the southwest border in the United States, the origins and evolution of the fusion center and finally, the prospects and challenges of using the model in a more global border security setting.