Event Description.
This lesson is based upon Angola, Sierra Leone, and Sudan mission
experiences and also draws from a case study in the U.S. Army War College
PKSOI elective course PS2206 – International Development.
b. TOPIC. Restoring Essential Services Post Conflict ( 1130 )
Observation.
Over the past two decades, occupying forces/coalitions have played a key role in
restoring essential services during stability operations. Many leaders fortunately
reflected on lessons learned from previous cases and applied them to restoring
essential services during stability operations in the Balkans and the Middle East.
Discussion.
During stability operations, there is a small window of opportunity, post conflict,
for the U.S. military, United States Agency for International Development
(USAID), Department of State (DOS), and the host nation (HN) to provide the
minimum essential services to the population. One of the most critical
challenges that leaders will encounter is the restoration of essential services.
The USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) is the lead United
States Government agency for humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
USAID will provide a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), which brings
significant capabilities, resources and expertise as a part of the United States
Government whole-of-government approach.
Due to the post conflict conditions, it is likely that the HN will be overwhelmed
and lacking the experience and capabilities to provide immediate emergency
response to its population. The HN and lead military nation are not alone in their
humanitarian assistance efforts. Recent history has proven that the HN can
expect humanitarian assistance from, and not limited to, aid from international
governments, international and regional organizations, and private organizations
to support the humanitarian assistance efforts.
Following conflict, the U.S. military must transition to a humanitarian assistance
role and will have the capability and capacity to meet the immediate requirements of equipment, transportation, communication and organizational skills
required to conduct this complex operation. Leaders must focus on building
partnership capacity in the HN services when identifying the most critical services
as a short-term objective, while also thinking of transitioning to long-term
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