Coordination is the Key

Abstract

Anyone attempting to evaluate the contribution that the military can make to coordinated UN humanitarian assistance operations has to take two ‘givens’ into account. First, the deployment of the military to assist with UN humanitarian operations will always be determined and conditioned by the appropriate political authority. Secondly, the size and equipment of national armed forces are fixed by what individual nations assess they need and can afford for national defence purposes. These practical realities condition the contribution that any national military can make towards a UN Mission with a humanitarian mandate. This chapter will proceed on the assumption that the necessary political will for any type or degree of national involvement is straightforward — would that it were so! — thus removing one of the two biggest impediments to effective UN action. The other — lack of coordination — is the subject of this chapter.