Assessing Requirements For Peacekeeping Humanitarian Assistance And Disaster Relief

The purpose of this project was to assess requirements for peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief. The project was carried out in three phases. During Phase One, RAND was tasked to provide a comprehensive analytic description of events associated with peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief. To accomplish this RAND developed a database called Force Access, that would be suitable to record and assess these events within the Department of Defense (DoD), Joint Staff (JS), and service staffs, especially the Army Staff. This database includes summary information for relevant operations conducted from 1990 through 1996, lists of units down to battalion/separate-company level for ground forces, and tables that link uniquely identified units to specific operations. provides a powerful combination of operational history and force structure within an easy-to-use relational database. Fully developed, it will offer a look into past operations and a useful tool for exploring the implications for force mix and force structure. An overview of Force Access is given as well as a technical description. In place of activities originally planned for Phase Two, the sponsor tasked RAND to produce a series of vignettes based on operations contained in the Force Access database. These vignettes are presented in Chapter Three. During the same phase, RAND was tasked to analyze the implications of these recurring operations, especially indications of stress on frequently tasked units of various types. During Phase Three, RAND was tasked to recommend changes in force structure and procedures that would improve the conduct of these types of smaller-scale contingencies without detracting from the nation's ability to wage major theater warfare. Such changes include modifications to force mix and force structure across the components.