ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief discussion of the principal considerations in the end state planning (ESP) assessment process and a detailed hypothetical illustration of ESP. ESP is a logical process that highlights critical interrelationships between the basic political and military guidance about objectives in a particular conflict situation arid the various centers of gravity. To plan for the restoration of Somalia as a viable nation-state as an end state, one must establish phases and variables and then interrelate specific activities by variable. A Somalia that is exercising decisive authority over the population and has discredited the warlords and even tried some of them for their crimes against the population is a long way from where the country is at the end of 1992. The key is to plan the incremental solutions over time to the problems that might preclude achieving the end state.
