Silver Bullet or Time Suck? Revisiting the Role of Interagency Coordination in Complex Operations

Integrated or whole-of-government approaches have come to be considered best practice in complex operations by a variety of multilateral organizations and governments. Recent efforts have largely focused on the seamless integration of civilian and military efforts in the theatre of operations. In the contemporary budgetary and political climate, however, the tools and processes that have been introduced over the past decade to facilitate the integration of defense, diplomacy and development have to be revisited. The challenge is to design a flexible institutional framework that allows agencies to cooperate effectively if and where needed, while at the same time allowing them to prioritize scarce resources in accordance with distinctly different core mandates and working methods. The article assesses the contribution made by two recent institutional mechanisms - Provincial Reconstruction Teams and the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization - to interagency coordination in stability operations and argues for a more selective approach. Institutionally, a new approach should invest in networks and people instead of advocating large-scale bureaucratic reorganization. Conceptually, it needs to account for the inevitability of friction among agencies within a comprehensive approach and more explicitly recognize tradeoffs arising from in joint structures. Organizations should strive to build on the experience of a generation of staff who experienced both the costs and benefits of coordination first-hand in order to devise a smart and selective model for future missions.