Bringing 22 different government agencies under a single umbrella is no easy task, as former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge discovered. And now, under a new secretary, the work to integrate the department is far from complete.

Today’s Washington Post ran a nice history of the department’s creation, and as usual I’ll give you a few choice cuts.

It was April 2003, and Susan Neely, a close aide to DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, decided the gargantuan new conglomeration of 22 federal agencies had to stand for something more than multicolored threat levels. It needed an identity — not the “flavor of the day in terms of brand chic,” as Neely put it, but something meant to last.

So she called in the branders.

Neely hired Landor Associates, the same company that invented the FedEx name and the BP sunflower, and together they began to rebrand a behemoth Landor described in a confidential briefing as a “disparate organization with a lack of focus.” They developed a new DHS typeface (Joanna, with modifications) and color scheme (cool gray, red and hints of “punched-up” blue). They debated new uniforms for its armies of agents and focus-group-tested a new seal designed to convey “strength” and “gravitas.” The department even got its own lapel pin, which was given to all 180,000 of its employees — with Ridge’s signature — to celebrate its “brand launch” that June.

“It’s got to have its own story,” Neely explained.

Nearly three years after it was created in the largest government reorganization since the Department of Defense, DHS does have a story, but so far it is one of haphazard design, bureaucratic warfare and unfulfilled promises. The department’s first significant test — its response to Hurricane Katrina in August — exposed a troubled organization where preparedness was more slogan than mission.

The branding is probably one of the things the department did best. I really like it, don’t you?

When bureaucracies were informed of potential threats to their empires, they tended to resist. “Everybody realized the agencies were not going to look at mission first, they were going to look at turf first,” recalled Bruce M. Lawlor, a National Guard major general working for Ridge.

That’s what bureaucracies do, and it’s what they’re best at. Nobody should be surprised by this, not after many centuries of history to draw from.

Actually, that’s all I’m going to give you. Go read the whole article for yourself, where you’ll find out who got gazumped and how.