Improving Army Planning for Future Multinational Coalition Operations

The Army currently lacks effective and appropriate processes to plan forenhanced multinational force compatibility (MFC). The current system wasnot designed for, and therefore is not capable of, supporting centralizedoversight of MFC activities. The authors address this problem by focusingrecommendations on two primary issues, the management of resources and ameans of prioritizing between partners and activities. On the first point,the authors point out the difficulties in identification and control overresources devoted to MFC and stress the need to sensitize the Army ProgramEvaluation Groups to provide the data required. On the second point, thestudy outlines a four-step integrated planning system that: (1) identifiesthe most likely long-term U.S. coalition partners (on the basis of amethodology designed for this purpose); (2) provides a way to pinpoint thecompatibility shortcomings of the potential partners across the full rangeof missions (on the basis of a software program designed for this purpose);(3) links specific Army MFC policies to the shortcomings (on the basis ofprevious RAND work); (4) once the resource data problems are solved, allowsfor the determination of cost-effective resource allocation. Whencost-effectiveness assessments of MFC efforts become possible, afifth--currently hypothetical--step of integrating the Army_s own forceplanning with that of allies and likely partners would become a realisticoption. In other words, Army planners could carry out cost-benefitassessments on the basis of tradeoffs between own and ally capabilities,knowing in detail the costs involved, and possibly in cooperation withselect allies and partners.

THOMAS S. SZAYNA (Ph.D., Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles) is the associate director of the Strategy, Doctrine, and Resources Program, Arroyo Center, at RAND. His research includes strategic planning, NATO military force structure and planning, intra-state conflict, peace operations, and democratization and civil-military relations.

Michele Zanini (master's in public policy, Harvard University) is a researcher at RAND who has worked on a number of RAND research projects focusing on NATO strategy in the Balkans and Mediterranean, terrorism, and European defense planning.