Winning the Peace: Building a Strategic Level Lessons Learned Program

Abstract

The U.S. military has developed a robust, comprehensive system to capture, analyze, and disseminate tactical-level and operational-level lessons learned from training events and ongoing conflict operations. Together with Joint Forces Command, the Services are working to expand their lessons learned efforts at the operational level and to incorporate the Theater Strategic arena. These efforts remain focused on warfighting issues -- Major Combat Operations. No comparable system exists at the strategic level to address post-conflict issues. Over the last three decades, U.S. Armed Forces have regularly been involved in conflicts where "winning the peace" has taken on greater significance. Post-conflict operations often dominate the military planning process as well as the interests and energies of the U.S. National Command Authority, the Department of State, and other government and nongovernment agencies. Many of these agencies have developed lessons learned programs with a peacekeeping, stability operations focus. However, there is no single agency or process that has taken on the challenge of monitoring all these efforts with the goal of sorting, analyzing, and globally sharing key operational and strategic lessons learned. The author proposes an approach to achieving interagency and military cooperation on the collection, analysis, and sharing of strategic-level lessons learned through the implementation of a Strategic Lessons Learned Program (SLLP). The author also recommends that the Center for Strategic Lessons Learned (CSLL) be integrated into the organizational structure of the Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute (PKSOI), either within the proposed Operational Integration Section or as an independent section or directorate. The CSLL would sponsor independent lessons learned collection efforts as well as collaborating with existing Service, JFCOM, or other agency planned collection efforts to meet strategic lessons learned requirements.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 09, 2007
Accession Number
ADA469680

Entities

People

  • Daniel L. French

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Combat Operations
  • Command And Control
  • Databases
  • Department Of Defense
  • Interagency Coordination
  • International Organizations
  • Iraqi-War
  • Knowledge Management
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • Nongovernmental Organizations
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Organizational Process Management (OPM).