U.S. Border Patrol Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Chris Kuhn, who has spent nearly two decades working on southern, northern, coastal, and Arctic border operations, leveraged his master’s thesis at the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) to fill a critical gap in how the nation approaches Arctic and border security. He identified a significant oversight: existing Arctic security frameworks – traditionally focused on diplomacy, military affairs, economy, society, and environment – did not include border security.
His solution was the Multi-Domain Border Security (MDBS) model, built on three pillars:
- Multi-domain awareness:Integrating situational awareness across land, air, sea, space, and cyber domains
- Multi-modal operations:Seamlessly coordinating land, air, and sea activities
- Multi-faceted partnerships:Fostering collaboration among federal, state, local, tribal, and international partners
Though originally scoped for Alaska and the Arctic, Kuhn’s framework had clear national applications, catching the attention of Department of Homeland Security partners and the National Laboratories. The Idaho National Laboratory is now using MDBS concepts to develop a new border security initiative, linking academic insight with applied science and technology.
His work demonstrates the power of practitioner-led scholarship at CHDS to drive meaningful change across the homeland security enterprise. For the full story at CHDS, click here.