Domestic Event Support Operations (Deso)

Publisher Marketing: Periodically, governments across the world find them selves hosting major peacetime events, often of an international nature, on their sovereign territory. Examples of these events include international sporting and cultural activities, such as the Olympic Games, the Soccer World Cup, and international expositions; and political gatherings, such as the G8 summit and World Trade Organization meetings. For a number of reasons, the successful conduct of these events is a matter of considerable national importance. To ensure the international community experiences these events at the appropriate standard, governments are inclined to support them even if, technically, they are not themselves conducting them. Frequently, the resources needed to achieve that standard exceed those available to the domestic authorities normally responsible for such events. This lack of resources creates a need for governments to surge briefly to higher levels of capability. To do so co st effectively, governments m ay need to engage the full range of national public and private sector agencies and capabilities, including their national defense establishments (DE),1 to support the major peacetime domestic events their countries host. For the purposes of this paper, the defense activities associated with that support are termed "domestic event support operations" (DESO). Contributor Bio:  Smith, Andrew ANDREW SMITH is a Brigadier in the Australian Army. He is currently assigned as the Director of the Combined Planning Group within the Headquarters of United States Central Command. In that capacity, he directs a team of international officers from 30 countries in the preparation of strategic-level political- military analyses and assessments. As a regular military officer with over 30 years of experience, Brigadier Smith has commanded army units and formations up to brigade level and has served a number of operational tours, including several in which he was responsible for dealing with the threat of improvised explosive devices. In a staff capacity, he has extensive experience in the force development field. He has also served as an instructor at the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College. Brigadier Smith's research interests include institutional responses to unconventional security threats and weapons law, and he has published journal articles on those subjects. Brigadier Smith holds a B. A. with Honours in English, a Master of Defence Studies, and a Ph. D. in Politics.