1. INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the September 2018 edition of the SOLLIMS Lessons Learned Sampler –
Foreign Humanitarian Assistance: The Complexity of Considerations
Definitions, like plans, don’t always survive first contact with reality. An accurate and succinct definition
of Foreign Humanitarian Assistance (FHA) is not easily contrived given the complexity of FHA itself and
the varying perspectives of the organizational actors involved. The newly established FHA division at the
U.S. Army War College’s Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI) relies on the definition
provided in the joint publication (Foreign Humanitarian Assistance 3-29), but this definition is limited to FHA
(which includes Foreign Disaster Relief (FDR)) operations in which the US military is assisting the US
Agency for International Development (USAID) or the Department of State (DOS) by providing a
specific, unique capability in response to a host nation’s request for disaster relief assistance. That sentence
itself belies the complexity of even a ‘limited’ definition of Foreign Humanitarian Assistance. It is the
Foreign Humanitarian Assistance division’s mission, in part, to address this complexity and help the Army,
and in turn the Joint Force, work through it by training and informing those who will be called to respond
when disaster strikes.
In order to address the complexity of FHA, this SOLLIMS Sampler features Lessons which both
highlight US military-specific considerations as well as go beyond a traditional military scope to address
humanitarian assistance considerations at the international level. The topic of Women, Peace, and
Security (WPS), for example, is examined in three lessons which consider gender perspectives and
women’s agency in the environments in which humanitarian assistance operations are conducted. Such
considerations are crucial if FHA is to adequately reach the entire host nation population. Women tend
to suffer disproportionately during disasters and their aftermath due to gender inequalities, and they are
often excluded from vital, influential roles in the response and rebuilding processes. The Lessons on this
topic are intended to share insights and best practices from the work of various organizations in the
humanitarian space which promote “the participation of women in … relief and recovery efforts” – a key
component of the WPS Act of 2017.
Pandemics and infectious disease control and response are addressed in three lessons which speak to the
necessity for planning and consideration at the Department of Defense (DOD) level to the international
level. One of the most effective methods of control is prevention, and a Lesson focused on a Pandemic
Prevention Program in Vietnam provides a useful model for containing the spread of diseases. Another
lesson addresses the financial mechanisms which become active in the event of an outbreak, addressing
the necessity of timeliness in preventing a disease from spreading rapidly. And of course, the US military’s
experience with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is given ample consideration in a lesson on Operation
United Assistance.
Remaining Lessons in the Sampler address an array of topics from civil affairs to transportation and
logistics to technology in Foreign Humanitarian Assistance. Civil affairs and coordination are treated with
Lessons derived from the military’s operations in response to the earthquake in Haiti. Other Lessons speak
to the use of technology, specifically unmanned and autonomous vehicles, and to the successful
implementation of transportation networks following the Tohoku earthquake and ensuing disasters that
struck Japan in 2011. All of these lessons, while diverse, present only a sample of the complexity of
considerations involved in Foreign Humanitarian Assistance—however broadly or narrowly defined.
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