Establishing a U.S. Unity of Effort in Humanitarian Assistance Operations

Abstract

A U.S. unity of effort during the Southeast Asian tsunami relief effort could have been achieved through increased communication, standardization of operations, combined training among the agencies involved, and empowerment of United States Agency for International' Development (USAID). U.S. efforts in response to the Southeast Asian tsunami of December 2004 included USAID, military and non-governmental organizations,(NGO) assets. Through a case study of the events of the relief effort, several problems became apparent with civil-military humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief operations including: duplicative assessment efforts, information sharing among different agencies, and communication between agencies. With USAID as the designated lead U.S. agency for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts, several improvements to disaster response can be made through open source internet sharing, incentives for NGO standardization, U.S: agency exchange tours, and increased interagency training exercises.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA509953

Entities

People

  • Jeremy R. Rich

Organizations

  • Marine Corps Combat Development Command

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of State
  • Disaster Management
  • Disasters
  • Foreign Relations
  • Governments
  • Humanitarian Assistance
  • International Organizations
  • Lessons Learned
  • Marine Corps
  • Military Operations
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Personnel
  • National Security
  • United States
  • United States Pacific Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.