Coalition Information Sharing: Lessons from Kosovo
Abstract
Increased civil-military involvement in peacekeeping and humanitarian operations around the world is matched in part by the rise in the number and complexity of these situations. There are many more actors on today's peace operations battlefield with competing as well as common interests and expectations. The need to improve coordination and more open information sharing is on the rise. Efforts to improve and facilitate more open information sharing among the disparate participants must overcome a continuing lack of trust among the civil-military actors and outdated organization cultural traditions and behavior patterns. All actors need to better understand each other and the roles they can and should play in an increasingly complex operational environment. In order to obtain closure and improve information sharing in the future, the actors must develop relationships based on mutual trust and there must be a clear understanding that information sharing operates on a two-way, transparent basis. Since no two operations are really the same, one should be careful not to generalize too much on experiences and lessons learned. Each experience is different but lessons from previous operations can place the community on a higher level of awareness and facilitate the tailoring of actions to meet the needs of the new operation. The Balkans is certainly an example of this. Kosovo was not Bosnia for a number of reasons and therefore, although many things have been learned in the Bosnia operation not all lessons are directly applicable to the challenges of Kosovo. For example, despite extensive Bosnia experience, civil-military information sharing in the Kosovo operation was problematic. Although some progress has been made through local collaborative initiatives, there is still a ways to go to meet expectations. Experiences such as the Balkans are highlighting the urgency to improve and this coupled with the information technology revolution offers a means to an end.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA468900
Entities
People
- Larry K. Wentz