By 1990, the Cold War was over and many Americans talked of the
"peace dividend" that would befall the country once military
spending and commitments could be reduced in what some referred to
as the New World Order. Instead, world affairs proved as dangerous
and intractable as ever, even more so perhaps than during the
period 1945-1990 when the two competing superpowers managed to hold
various tribal, ethnic, religious, and political conflicts around
the world somewhat in check. Driving home how dangerous the world
remained in the 1990s, the US military found itself fighting one
major war, Operation Desert Storm, and participating in a variety
of other military activities, including three major interventions:
Somalia, Haiti, and the Balkans. The Combat Studies Institute has
published scholarly accounts of the Gulf War (Lucky War), the
Somalian venture ("My Clan Against the World"), and the involvement
in Haiti (Invasion, Intervention, "Intervasion"). The publication
of Armed Peacekeepers in Bosnia adds another case study to the
Institute's coverage of these post-Cold War US military operations.
With the aid of a generous grant from the US Institute of Peace,
Robert Baumann, George Gawrych, and Walter Kretchik were able to
access and examine relevant documents, interview numerous
participants, and visit US and NATO forces in Bosnia. As a result
of their labors, they have provided the reader an analytical
narrative that covers the background to the crisis in Bosnia, the
largely ineffectual efforts of the UN Protection Force to stop the
civil war there between 1992 and 1995, the Dayton Peace Accords of
1995 that produced a framework for ending the civil war and
consolidating the peace, the frenetic planning that led to the
deployment of US forces as part of the NATO-led multinational force
(Operation Joint Endeavor), and the transition of that
Implementation Force to the Stabilization Force a year later. The
authors shed light on several of the critical military lessons that
have emerged from the US experience in Bosnia-an involvement that
continues as of this writing. In general, these cover the
cooperation and contention present in virtually any coalition
undertaking; the complexity of the local situation and the way in
which strictly military tasks have political, social, economic, and
cultural ramifications that the military cannot ignore or avoid;
the inevitable adjustments peacekeepers have to make to dynamic and
precarious situations; and the often unaccommodating role history
plays when confronted with concerns about force protection,
"mission creep," "end states," and early exits. In Bosnia, as in
countless other operations, a US military force trained and
equipped to fight a highly technological, conventional war found
itself making adjustments that resulted in performing tasks that
many officers considered unconventional and unorthodox. The ability
to make these adjustments and to perform these tasks has thus far
leant to the success of the US/NATO involvement in Bosnia. Now the
United States is engaged in the Global War on Terror and, in the
process, has already embarked on stability operations in
Afghanistan and Iraq. The case of Bosnia is, of course, unique but
the general lessons it provides are relevant to US officers
fighting in the current war and should not be overlooked.
General
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