Effective unified command is indispensable to all incident response activities and requires a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each participating organization. Success requires unity of effort, which respects the chain of command of each participating organization while harnessing seamless coordination across jurisdictions in support of common objectives. Unified command is an important element across multi-jurisdictional or multi-agency incident management activities. It provides a structure to enable agencies with different legal, geographic and functional responsibilities to coordinate, plan and interact effectively. As a team effort, unified command allows all agencies with jurisdictional authority or functional responsibility for the incident to provide joint support through mutually developed incident objectives and strategies established at the command level. Each participating agency maintains its own authority, responsibility and accountability. This Framework [NRF] employs the NIMS structures and tools that enable unified command to be effective in incident management. (DHS, National Response Framework Comment Draft, September 2007, p. 10)