Interagency Management of Complex Contingency Operations : The Impact of Presidential Decision Directive 56

The central question of this thesis is: What was the impact of Presidential Decision Directive 56? The U.S. government recognized the need for a more systemized method for managing the interagency response to complex contingency operations, after their experiences in Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia. In 1997, President Clinton signed PDD 56: The Clinton Administration's Policy on Managing Complex Contingency Operations. To determine the impact of this directive, this thesis uses a pre-PDD 56 and post-PDD 56 case study comparison methodology treating PDD 56 as the intervention. U.S. participation in Bosnia from 1995 until 1996 is the pre-PDD 56 case study, and U.S. participation in Kosovo from 1998 until 1999 is the post-PDD 56 case study. The Bosnia and Kosovo case studies are compared using six variables (type, depth, and timing of planning, decision process, funding, and monitoring and modification). Subsequent improvements to PDD 56 illustrate the positive impact that PDD 56 has had on improving U.S. government civil-military unity of effort in complex contingency operations.Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA is the author of 'Interagency Management of Complex Contingency Operations : The Impact of Presidential Decision Directive 56', published 2001 under ISBN 9781423525943 and ISBN 1423525949.