FBA Research Brief: Mission Leaders: An Evidence-based Assessment

This FBA research brief highlights the policy implications based on the findings of a larger study on civil-military relations (CMR) in international conflict management.

The importance of top quality mission leadership for mission coherence is evident in today’s increasingly complex, integrated, and variegated mission environments, where mission leaders continuously weigh short-term military and security advances against long-term political and societal aims (Jenne, 2022, p. 4). Research on civil-military relations in contemporary UN ‘multidimensional’ missions overwhelmingly finds that good civil-military interactions are beneficial to mission coherence and, therefore, effective mission implementation. Strategic mission leaders can employ certain strategies and practices, integrating best practices and organisational principles and guidelines into what they do.