U.S. Military Deployments to Africa: Lessons from the Hunt for Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army

Abstract

Dr. James Forest s monograph explores lessons and observations from the recent United States Special Operations Forces (USSOF) effort to help Ugandan and other African regional forces locate and apprehend Joseph Kony and members of the Lord s Resistance Army (LRA). Dr. Forest examines the context behind the decision to deploy U.S. military advisors to the region and the significant public pressure placed on the Obama administration to do something. The U.S. commitment to helping Africa respond to the LRA threat dates back to the early 1990s. Dr. Forest provides an overview of the initial troop deployment and the logistics challenge faced and then explores various lessons that can be derived from the first 18 months of deployment. Four themes are identified as important for the success or failure of future U.S. military deployments to sub-Saharan Africa: (1) preparations and logistics, (2) perceptions and expectations management, (3) partnerships and relationship management, and (4) policy and politics. The observations and lessons about preparation and logistics are described and it is recommended that Special Operations Forces (SOF) teams deploying to this environment should prioritize their learning to focus on the customs, culture, and history of the region. SOF teams can hire translators to help them across the language barriers once on the ground, but they cannot get translators to help them across the cultural barriers. Logistically, the movement of materiel into many areas of Africa is limited by the relatively short length of landing strips, which can be used only by small fixed-wing or rotary aircraft. A considerable amount of creativity and ingenuity is necessary to maximize available space on these aircraft.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2014
Accession Number
ADA617136

Entities

People

  • James J. Forest

Organizations

  • Joint Special Operations University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Department Of State
  • Employment
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Health Services
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Science
  • Mobile Phones
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Public Policy
  • Students
  • Terrorists
  • United States Africa Command
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.

Technology Areas

  • Space