Tim Lannan
100 Hours in Kabul - Multinational non-combatant evacuation operations (NEOs): Lessons learned from the drawdown in Afghanistan (with Jamie Ferrill and Christian Leuprecht)
This project analyses multinational non-combatant evacuation operations (NEOs), drawing on NATO's role in the drawdown in Afghanistan as a critical case study. The aim is to compare the principles of NEOs against how the final days of the Afghanistan mission unfolded, and how to ensure future NEOs are better able to deliver on assurances and expectations.
The first phase of the project offers critical insight into the consequences for the Afghan NEO of the political jostling that took place. The second phase systematically compares multinational to national NEOs.
The project will make a significant contribution to the relatively marginal scholarly literature on NEOs in general, and the even smaller literature on multinational NEOs, while offering a strategic and humanitarian critique of the predominantly instrumental and operational approach to the Afghan NEO that mirrors the difficulties of multinational operations that bedevilled the Afghanistan mission over 20 years. NATO’s civilian and military expertise plays an outsized role in preserving the international rules-based order by ensuring regional peace and stability. This project’s critical reflection on the Afghanistan NEO will inform strategic and operational decision-making, planning, and logistics for current and future international security and stability operations around the globe.
Biography
Tim Lannan is the Head of the Euro Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. He is a proud veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, from where he retired as a Senior Officer, having served 15 years domestically and 8 years internationally deployed, including to hostile environments. Tim is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada, and the United States Naval Postgraduate School where he earned a Masters of Science degree in Defense Analysis in the field of Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. In September of 2021, Tim was awarded the NATO Meritorious Service Medal following his deployment to Kabul, Afghanistan where he supported the evacuation of NATO affiliated Afghans and their families.
