Understanding the priorities of Civil-Military co-operation

This is a very complete article on what is at stake in the involvement of the military in humanitarian and developmental activities along with NGOs in the peace-operations in the Balkans. It also investigates into the historical origins of these types of «new missions».

Abstract

Contemporary military operations take place in complex environments populated by multiple civilian and humanitarian institutions and a challenging array of issues that are not precisely ’military’ in nature. This has increased the importance of managing the civil-military interface, particularly that between the military and the humanitarian community. This process of management is frequently described as Civil-Military Co-operation (or CIMIC).

It is necessary to manage both the relationship with and separateness of the humanitarian community; however, the military tend to focus on the former at the expense of the latter. This has been compounded by the politicisation of humanitarian action, the lack of professional training for soldiers in this area and the fragility of the military’s institutional memory. This paper seeks to explore the issues confronting particularly the British military in terms of its management of the interface between itself and the broadly defined civil humanitarian community. It briefly explores the evolution of structures for managing the civil -military interface before identifying four sets of issues that confront CIMIC planners.

GORDON (Stuart), « Understanding the priorities of Civil-Military co-operation », The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, 13 juillet 2001, http://www.jha.ac/articles/a068.htm