NGO involvement , unity of effort and the 360-degree battlespace
In the aftermath of the 2003 invasion , it was announced that all operations including NGO operations would be coordinated within the military ’ s command and control . Immediately after that , nearly every NGO previously on tap to commence operations inside Iraq pulled out , leaving a bare handful to pick up the slack .
With the exception of humanitarian relief ( food , shelter , medical supplies and the like ), NGO operations historically tended to take place either before or after violent conflict and major reconstruction operations . Involvement within complex operations during ongoing conflict and within reconstruction operations is a comparatively new space for those NGOs which work with social , political and governmental programming . It is abundantly clear that neither the military nor the government is capable of carrying out every task involved with reconstruction operations , any more than NGOs can ( or should ) take on security operations .
Long-term issues of development , peacebuilding , diplomacy , politics and community security , just to name a few , fall within the spectrum of NGO operations . These issues are not core military training objectives , if trained at all . There is an inherent learning curve as the various component parts of complex operations learn to work together in absence of historical lessons for how to do so productively . In the process of navigating that learning curve , a number of cautionary tales have become apparent .
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