The Politics of Peace: The Challenge of Civil-Military Cooperation in Somalia

Despite considerable recent experience and attention, effective civil-military cooperation in peace operations remains elusive. This paper explores the US Armed Forces' approach to relationships with civilian relief organizations including UN agencies, US government agencies, and NGOs. It derives several hypotheses from organizational theory and tests them in a case study of the planning and execution of peace operations in Somalia from August 1992-May 1993. In this case, the military's organizational interest in reducing uncertainty best explains the generally uncooperative way in which civil-military relationships developed in Somalia. This conclusion implies that policy makers in current and future peace operations may need to press the military to be more proactive and persistent in cooperating with civilian relief organizations. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]