War Contingency Plans

The Nation has a speculative article about the U.S. carrying out military action against Iran. From an NGO security perspective, this begs the question of what implications would an attack have on humanitarian organizations? Events such as the outcry over Danish cartoons that depicted Muhammed, recent riots in Kabul, and the storming of UN offices in Beirut, have clearly demonstrated there can be considerable backlash against NGOs; even with acceptance strategies in place and the organization not involved with the trigger event. Reading the winds, over the next few weeks the prudent security officer should think through some "what if" scenarios and start looking at contingency plans. While hopefully nothing will happen in the coming months, it never hurts to have a good plan, just in case.