Outside intervention in civil wars in Cambodia, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo triggered reactions within each of these societies that made the assumptions underlying the military plans invalid at an early stage. In John Hersey's novel A Bell for Adano, American civil affairs Major Victor Joppolo disregarded the plans he had received for administering the Sicilian town Adano in 1943. His detailed instructions disappeared into the wastebasket after he took office in the town hall. The orders seemed of little value during the first days of his military reign. Instead, he followed his inclinations and went to the people of Adano and asked what they needed most. Although the town suffered from severe shortages, it was not food or water the people wanted most. The Sicilian villagers decided that what they needed most of all was a new bell for the church tower. The old bell, with its warm and comforting sound, had embodied the spirit of the town, but had been stolen by the retreating German troops to be melted for the production of ammunition. Joppolo set out to find a new bell for Adano and, having won the trust of the population, established Allied control in the wake of the military advance. ‘When plans fall down, improvise,’ had been the most important lesson he had distilled from his training in civil affairs.

Operational Shift

After military plans failed in Cambodia, the force's main goal shifted from demilitarization of the local warring factions to supporting and eventually running much of the elections. In Somalia, the tasks of the soldiers on the ground rapidly shifted after successfully protecting the delivery of humanitarian aid to improvised internal security operations, although protection of the people was not the official goal. The mission in Bosnia slowly changed from separating the warring parties to supporting the international civilian effort to reintegrate the divided state. In Kosovo, the primary goal altered from protecting the Kosovar Albanian population by deploying a large military force, to the protection of the Serb minority and establishment of international governmental control. The process of adapting to these altered requirements on military forces has been a mixed success during the last decades of the twentieth century – primarily because it required adaptation to challenges in the civilian rather than the military sphere.