Margaret C. Harrell

Military Issues in Multinational Operations

This chapter focuses on the issues which arise for military forces as they prepare for and conduct peacekeeping operations, especially the larger, more ambitious and more demanding kind so prominent in the last six years. If military operations exist as a continuum with conventional operations at one extreme and the pure observer missions at the other — it is clear that the tension with conventional doctrine occurs around the middle of the continuum. This is evident in the control and organisation of missions. When conventional combat is certain, the units should always operate as national entities at as high a level as possible for maximum effectiveness. For observer missions, combat is not part of their mission and multinational participants can be integrated at a much lower level.1 In the middle, however, the situation will generally be unclear and hard decisions will be necessary. The bulk of the chapter identifies military-related issues and lessons derived from recent and ongoing experiences. A short conclusion section then looks to the implications of our findings for the United States military, specifically the US Army.