ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the conflicts that the object of international intervention are dynamic and that coordination is not an end in itself but an attempt to enhance the quality and impact of the international intervention. The chapter has six major sections. The first identifies three interlocking levels of the coordination of conflict interventions; the second provides a critical review of common objections and of institutional obstacles to coordination. The third discusses a range of functions that a coordinating process at field level may perform. It explores which functions are taken up and which not, in an effort to determine whether the coordination effort remains hollow or becomes substantive. The fourth section addresses the issue of coordinating action which is designed to facilitate the creation of humanitarian space, while the fifth section deals with coordination that is designed to facilitate conflict management. The final section identifies the, still elusive, 'strategic coordination' as one of the major challenges facing the humanitarian community.
