Lessons from Kosovo: The KFOR Experience
Abstract
Civil-military unity of effort has been an essential yet frustrating elusive requirement for success in post-cold-war peace operations. The need to coordinate, collaborate, and share information between civilian and military entities is on the rise and is deemed an essential requirement for success. Today's information and communications technologies serve to facilitate the exchange of information among the disparate players of peace operations, but the ability to actually realize open information sharing in real-world coalition operations remains problematic. The integration of relevant information and the timely dissemination of the processed information to interested parties in the field is well within the realities of today's technology. For the Balkans operations, CCRP led a study of the U.S. participation in the Bosnia operation, the NATO-led Implementation Force (IFOR). Kosovo offered another unique opportunity for CCRP to conduct additional coalition C4ISR-focused research in the areas of coalition command and control, civil-military cooperation, information assurance, C4ISR interoperability, and information operations. The Kosovo research effort was launched in the fall of 1999 and completed in the summer of 2001. Insights from the Kosovo experience documented in this book are part of the continuing effort of CCRP to educate the C4ISR community on the realities of military support to multinational peace operations. The 30 chapters in this book address the following topics: Kosovo versus Bosnia, Kosovo's political evolution, Kosovo's elections, the air war over Serbia, Operation Allied Force, NATO Headquarters intelligence, Kosovo and the media, civilian-military operations, the humanitarian dimension, law and order during Operation Joint Guardian, information operations, Task Force Falcon, coalition command arrangements, intelligence and situational awareness, public affairs, communications systems, and coordination and information sharing.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA457903
Entities
People
- Larry K. Wentz
Organizations
- United States Assistant Secretary of Defense