Title: Irreconcilable Differences? Emerging US Military Doctrine and Humanitarian Space
Abstract:In November 2005, United States Department of Defense Directive 3000.05 conveyed a new core mission upon the United States armed forces – stability operations – which are now viewed as equally importa...In November 2005, United States Department of Defense Directive 3000.05 conveyed a new core mission upon the United States armed forces – stability operations – which are now viewed as equally important to combat operations. In October 2006, the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps jointly published a new manual on Counterinsurgency (COIN), a doctrine closely aligned with emerging stability operations concepts. This doctrine points to the support of the local population as the center of gravity (COG) of the military campaign, as opposed to traditional warfighting campaign COGs like infrastructure, communications hubs, and key leadership, among others. This new approach dictates pursuit of lines of operation (LOOs) such as restoration or maintenance of essential services, promotionof good governance, and economic development. These areas, which are now seen as critical to the success of a military campaign to root out insurgency and establish stability, clearly fall into traditional humanitarian space. This is particularly true of the essential services line, which addressed the “life support needs of the host nation population.”2 While the military acknowledges that these services are best provided by non-military actors, they recognize that when security situations deteriorate and prevent the participation of civilian actors, the military must be prepared to conduct the work with its own forces. By their very nature, COIN environments meet this poor security situation criterion that deters the presence of non-military actors.Read More
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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