a guide to peace support operations - The Watson Institute for ...

population will impede and in some cases seriously threaten relief efforts. In
addition to violence against the civil populations, civilian installations such as
hospitals, schools, refugee centers, and cultural sites will become war objectives
and may be looted frequently or destroyed.
b. Tasks
A crisis that is precipitated by several distinct factors will require a response
group that has a corresponding span of diverse capabilities. Each of these may be
provided by a different agency or military contingent. For a multinational
response group operating in a war zone, military awareness is essential. The
military elements may be required to act as an overall security enhancing presence
to encourage an environment in which the civil organizations can work. In
addition, military contingents can assist the other elements of a disaster response
group in the initial stages with its reliable logistics, communications, and
mobility. However, once a reasonable level of security has been established, the
primary task will be to rebuild and restore social and political structures; this will
fall to the relief agencies and the military element will be subordinated to
maintaining secure working conditions for them. Acting individually or as a
group, the response elements may have to:
• provide immediate humanitarian relief;
• negotiate cease-fires;
• resettle displaced populations;
• rehabilitate demobilized militias;
• restore essential services;
• establish an interim government;
• restore the economy;
• rebuild the civilian infrastructure;
• reconcile opposed parties;
• investigate human rights issues; and
• organize elections.
Part I, paragraphs 8-9
9. Need for a Fresh Approach
CHALLENGES AT OPERATIONAL LEVEL
In the 1990s, as a consequence of becoming involved in intrastate violence and the
need for larger and more powerfully equipped forces, the status of the peacekeeper and
the aid worker began to alter. Insurgent forces of the host state were less reliable to deal
with than accountable state armies of traditional peacekeeping experience. In the bitter
and mutually destructive fighting that characterizes civil conflict, the response elements’
immunity became less credible and the threat to withdraw consent and therefore their
immunity was used manipulatively against them by local forces. Increasingly the
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