Sharing to Succeed: Lessons from Open Information-sharing Projects in Afghanistan

Authors

Linton Wells II, Center for Technology and National Security Policy, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University
James Bosworth
John Crowley, National Defense University; Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Rebecca Linder Blachly, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Files

Description

The sharing of information in complex civil-military operations1 is important, yet actors rarely do it well. U.S. and allied military forces must be able to communicate, collaborate, and exchange information effectively with the local populations they seek to influence, or they cannot achieve the goals for which they have been committed. Nonetheless, experience from stability operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, numerous humanitarian assistance/disaster relief missions, and efforts to build the capacity of foreign partners suggest that effective information-sharing is much harder than might be expected. This paper sheds light on the difficulties of setting up and sustaining projects to share information in such situations and suggests ways to do better in the future.

Document Type

Policy Brief

Publication Date

7-2013

Publication

Defense Horizons

Publisher

National Defense University Press

City

Washington, DC

Recommended Citation

Wells, Linton II; Bosworth, James; Crowley, John; and Blachly, Rebecca Linder, "Sharing to Succeed: Lessons from Open Information-sharing Projects in Afghanistan" (2013). Defense Horizons. 9.
https://digitalcommons.ndu.edu/defense-horizons/9