Workgroup 4, a concentrated effort should be made to assess
social impact actors and social enterprises as potential valued
partners. Regrettably, we must also remain alert for spoilers to
economic stabilization and cross-sector collaboration, especially
official corruption, illicit economic actors, and criminal patronage networks.
The question of appropriate roles, missions, organizational
structures and collaborative processes, especially regarding the
participation of military forces, produced lively discussions.
There was general consensus that the military should “do no
harm” and consider what it should not do, but that there are
viable roles for senior military leaders and their organizations,
including facilitator, enabler, convener, and economic and societal information gatherer. For example, the military can contribute significantly to a common economic and societal operating
picture----observant soldiers walking through local marketplaces and amongst critical infrastructure can provide valuable insights. Related and omnipresent questions are the level of host
nation economic capacities and the degree of security around
economic centers of gravity. Accordingly, military security,
transportation, and infrastructure reconstruction capabilities
may also play key roles.
Capturing the entirety of Workgroup 4’s discussion of suggested
best practices for facilitating successful cross-sector collaborations in this arena would require a book-length publication;
however, some key themes follow. First, it is critical to un-
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derstand civil - military differences, including time horizons,
analytic and decision-making frameworks, perception of who/
what are the critical adversaries, planning practices, cyclic versus
linear models, and strategic leadership mindsets and experiences. Next, appropriate host nation, regional, and international
community stakeholders should be brought into the stability
operations planning process from the beginning, including
initial economic and societal information gathering efforts.
Structure and processes should be designed to ensure the effective diffusion of collective understanding and lessons learned,
enabling the cultivation of vibrant institutional memory
amongst the participants. All of this helps promote a mindset
of economic and infrastructure sustainability and accountability by participating stakeholders.
As the Joint Proponent for Peacekeeping and Stability Operations, PKSOI will continue to correspond with Workgroup
4 members and others as we turn these ideas into multiple
products used by strategic leaders, including handbooks and
doctrine, classroom instruction, interagency tabletop exercises,
and others. One step in this direction was taken immediately after the PSOTEW when I shared key Workgroup 4 ideas
with my U.S. Army War College resident and distance students
taking the hybrid elective course, “Facilitating Collaboration:
Economic and Infrastructure Development.” If you want to
help turn these and your ideas into action, please email me at
[email protected]