The workshop on Interagency and Political-Military Dimensions of Peace Operations was held at the National Defense University on May 24,1995, the fifth in a series that explores advanced command relationships and technologies. The workshops are sponsored by the Center for Advanced Concepts and Technology (ACT), which has a charter from The Joint Staff to conceptualize and develop Mission Capability Packages (MCPs) that will support improved joint and combined command and control (C2) for Operations Other Than War (OOTW), including coalition peace operations. MCPs are best described as coherent, comprehensive approaches to a particular set of missions and levels of technology that enable effective integration of the force structure, doctrine, command and control arrangements, and the technologies required to accomplish the mission. Figure 1 illustrates MCP development. Each stage of the development has a feedback loop to continually refine the process.
In addition to developing MCPs, ACT serves as the bridge between the technical and operational communities, creating venues for communi-cation between the two groups.
ACT workshops are designed to focus on command and control issues by bringing together select groups of senior analysts and operators to explore a particular issue, operation, or problem. A primary goal is to analyze and improve the linkages between the military operational and technical communities. Participants include the activity's sponsors (The Joint Staff and the Assistant Secretary of Defense for C3I), the services, representatives of the U.S. CINCs, other selected U.S. Government agencies, academics, and private organizations with relevant expertise. All ACT workshops are conducted on a non-attribution basis and work toward consensus on major issues. Evidence Based Research, Inc. (EBR) acts as rapporteur for the discussions.
Each ACT workshop to date has built upon the lessons learned from previous sessions. The first workshop focused on identifying unique command and control requirements and essential functions of coalition peace operations. The second dealt with designing ideal command arrangements for peace operations involving a U.S. combined joint task force (CJTF), and the third expanded this perspective to include the experience of Western Hemisphere peace operators. While the first two workshops looked at the issues from the U.S. perspective only, the third validated concepts and added new insights from an experienced group of senior operators from seven other countries in the Western Hemisphere.
The first three workshops identified two areas that warranted additional study. The first area, the issue of technology in Operations Other Than War, emerged as a qualitatively different problem. A fourth workshop was held to examine OOTW issues and related technologies, including the feasibility and employment of non-lethal weapons (NLW). The second area, interagency and civilian and military organization communication, was identified as a problem area in all of the peace operations studied. Widely regarded as an operation that "went right," Haiti offered an opportunity to explore interagency relations in an operation close to home that had high visibility and a greater degree of interagency civilian-military coordination and planning than the other operations examined to date. The Haiti workshop reported here was convened to explore those issues.
The Haiti workshop was a rich mix of senior civilian and military officials from the Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Justice, Agency for International Development, and from the relevant operational commands and the Coast Guard (Participants are listed in Appendix A). Each participant brought first-hand experience in the planning and execution of the Haiti operation. For the first time in the series, an official from a Private Voluntary Organization (PVO) participated. The group achieved a high degree of candor in wide-ranging discussions.
Examination of the Haiti operation was divided into four phases of the evolution of the operation- the planning phase, the military operation itself, the transition to civilian control, and the transfer to UN responsibility. In each phase, the participants assessed decision processes and activities taking place at the strategic, operational, and tactical planning levels and within military, civilian, and nongovernmental organizations. This structural framework is illustrated in Figure 2.
By differentiating the discussion of strategic, operational, and tactical areas, comments and observations were directed to key command and control issues. Nevertheless, discussion revealed that many of the key lessons to be learned from this experience were concentrated in specific phases in the evolution of the operation, particularly at the interfaces of civilian-military and strategic-operational planning. The shading in Figure 2 depicts these differences. One of the workshop's most significant conclusions was the need to improve communications between these planning levels as well as between civilian and military officials at the same planning levels.
This report summarizes the workshop discussions and analyzes the issues that arose. It does not pretend to be the definitive statement on Operation Uphold Democracy. The rapporteurs have adhered to the discussion and observations of workshop participants. The report seeks to reflect those individuals' insights into the specific problems of civilian-military and interagency planning as they relate to the issues of command and control. Chapter 2 develops the chronology of the overall operation with a time line displaying the relationship between political events and the planning process. Chapter 3 analyzes what went right in the operation and what contributed to success. Chapter 4 is an analysis of the issues that arose between DoD and the other organizations involved, and of the issues that arose between the strategic, operational, and tactical levels within and outside DoD. Policy and organizational issues are examined, as well as issues perceived as unique to the Haiti operation. Lessons learned are summarized in the final chapter.
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