A systems approach to integration of military operations and law enforcement investigations: Toward a unified forensic intelligence model

The changing nature of war in relation to global terrorism, foreign terrorist fighters and length of conflict has resulted in a transformation of the strategic environment from previous conventional warfare. Coalition forces faced a threat environment in Iraq and Syria of nonconventional warfare that could include improvised, hybrid (a combination of improvised and conventional) and asymmetrical threats. The United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2396 (2017) and 2322 (2016) obligates the Member States to investigate foreign terrorist fighters and requires a closer alignment between military operations and law enforcement investigations. This has called for forensic science to be employed beyond its traditional support to law enforcement investigations and for the criminal justice system to support military operations. However, there is no unified approach to forensic science support to meet national security objectives. In this review, we discuss the systems approach to the integration of military operations and law enforcement investigations as a unified forensic intelligence model. This article is categorized under: Forensic Medicine > Historical Perspectives Jurisprudence and Regulatory Oversight > Interdisciplinary Collaboration In the unified forensic intelligence model foreign military exploitation seamlessly supports national security and rule of law objectives by providing material collected and examined in a forensically sound manner, which can be used to support law enforcement investigations or presented as evidence to support criminal prosecutions, if required.