Mass Atrocity Response Operations: A Military Planning Handbook

A Mass Atrocity Response Operation (MARO) describes a contingency operation to halt the widespread and systematic use of violence by state or non-state armed groups against non-combatants. The MARO Military Planning Handbook explains why MAROs present unique operational challenges and provides framing and planning tools to prepare the military. While primarily intended for military planners, it is also useful for policymakers and other non-military readers interested in the prevention of and military response to mass atrocities. It compares and contrasts MAROs to other types of military operations, explores the specific dynamics of mass atrocity, and outlines the operational and political implications of an intervention to stop attacks upon civilians. The Handbook provides a guide to identify key aspects of a particular MARO environment, frame the problem holistically, develop response options, and design a comprehensive operational concept.

Sarah Sewall is the MARO Project Founder and Faculty Director. She teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and serves on the US Defense Policy Board. She led the Obama Transition's National Security Agency Review process in 2008. During the Clinton Administration, Sewall served as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance. From 1983-1996, she served as Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell. Before joining Harvard, Sewall was at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences where she edited The United States and the International Criminal Court (2002). Her more recent publications include the introduction to the University of Chicago Edition of the US Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual (2007) and, with John White, Parameters of Partnership: US Civil-Military Relations in the 21st Century (2009).