The IFOR/SFOR Experience

Among the Partnership for Peace states that participated in the Implementation and Stabilization Forces in the Balkans, the experiences of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania provide a rich summary of the collective lessons learned through these operations. Each of these four states: experienced strains and distortions in their defense budgets found it difficult to stand up their battalions and concluded that it would be necessary to establish pre-standing units for future peace support operations learned that military officers' language training needed to be improved determined that communications equipment and training needed to be changed saw IFOR/SFOR as a laboratory for deepening interoperability with NATO.