The new role of humanitarian assistance in national military strategy : how to make it work.

Reprint

The purpose of this research paper is to examine how to enhance humanitarian assistance effectiveness in order to make it work better as part of forward presence in national defense strategy. In order for the military planner to understand humanitarian assistance better, this paper highlights the events that led to humanitarian assistance being incorporated as a means to accomplish forward defense in national military strategy. It defines humanitarian assistance. It examines how the interagency process works in providing humanitarian assistance and the military's role in this process. With this as a background, historical cases are analysed to determine underlying principles common to humanitarian assistance operations that can be incorporated into an effective future humanitarian assistance doctrine. From these principles, recommendations are made that can enhance the effectiveness of future humanitarian assistance operations