Canadian Lessons from Afghanistan
by Dr. Peter Dobias
Download the full article: Mission Assessment in Complex Operations
The assessment of mission effectiveness has been called the "Achilles' heel" of the effects based approach to operations. This is especially true in the multi-agency, multi-stakeholder environment of present-day counterinsurgency. This paper addresses some of the pitfalls of assessment and suggests possible solutions to enable effective mission assessment in a complex environment. It is based to a large degree on the author's experience with the whole-of-government environment gained while supporting the mission assessment for the Canadian mission in Afghanistan both in Canada and while deployed with Task Force Kandahar. The key point of the paper is that great care has to be taken when using lower-level assessments to obtain higher-level situational picture for the state of insurgency and/or economic and governance development. Otherwise, a potentially skewed picture can arise, or the assessment becomes too laborious and ineffective.
Download the full article: Mission Assessment in Complex Operations
Dr. Peter Dobias received his MSc degree in theoretical physics from the Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia and his PhD in physics from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He works for Defence Research and Development Canada Centre for Operational Research and Analysis. His focus is complex systems, combat modeling and wargaming, as well as effects-based operations and assessment. Recently he returned from Afghanistan where he worked as an Operational Analyst in Support of Task Force Kandahar, and supported the planning and assessment efforts of J5 Division.
