Publications Tag: transitions

Contingency operations are currently taking place in dangerous, unpredictable, and highly volatile environments where local government institutions have weakened or collapsed. In view of these conflict situations, it is recognized that the initial task of the military (whether national or multilateral) is to provide security.

On December 15, 2011, the U.S. mission in Iraq became State Department-led, and all U.S. military activities became the responsibility of the U.S. Embassy’s Office of Security Cooperation–Iraq (OSC-I). There are few, if any, well-known examples of such a transition in U.S. history that might inform civilian and military leaders in Baghdad.

When intervening forces create a safe and secure environment to implement a whole of government approach, they simultaneously create opportunities for hitherto unnoticed and powerless opponents to do the same—and sometimes more successfully.

In early 2011, senior leaders from across the U.S. interagency community participated in a discussion on how to overcome the “messy” transitions in which they so often struggled.  This handbook is the result of those exchanges…