Civil Military Co-operation (CIMIC)

 

The committee must provide advice from CIOR’s perspective on the best utilization of reservists within the scope of CIMIC, and act as a think tank and forum for discussions of reserve issues by giving advice to our stakeholders. Being a trusted advisor encompasses sharing best practises and fostering professional development as a prime forum for reservist within CIMIC.

 

CIMIC has in the last three years been involved in a number of working groups, which came out of our strategic planning in 2007.

 

CIMIC scope and doctrine: A brief study on CIOR member countries in regards to national doctrine, CIMIC organization and educational options. 17 countries participated in the first version, which was presented to council during the 2010 MWM.

 

Civilian skill database: CIMIC conducted a study which followed up on the previous work done by CIOR in 2001 and was handed over to the Defense and Security committee (DEFSEC) in 2009.

 

Education: CIMIC has during the last two summer congresses set up meeting with the host nations CIMIC organization in order to share ideas and knowledge within CIMIC.

LO to relevant CIMIC communities: CIMIC set up a relationship to the CIMIC Center of Excellence (CCoE) in order to create a forum with a key stakeholder within the CIMIC community

Employer support: As part of two symposiums CIMIC worked with employer support as well as recruitment and retention, and have provided a number of recommendations to our stakeholders as well as input to council for relevant tasking for the committees.

Historical the scope of the CIMIC committee has been on the operational and tactical side of S9/G9

CIMIC is focusing on humanitarian aid missions, aid to civil authorities, NGO/IO’s and CIMIC in expeditionary operations.

However CIMIC within CIOR should not be viewed as only dealing with AJP-9 or MC 411/1 NATO doctrine and policy, but in future work instead take a more broad view on the CIMIC interface both nationally and in missions.  Consequently CIMIC should be involved in all relevant traits of influencing activities and the non-kinetic fighting. Reserve officers have both military and civilian skills, and many officers working within the areas of influencing operations such as INFOOPS, PSYOPS, CIMIC, HUMINT are in fact reservists.

However CIMIC should also start looking more into the issues within our home nations – employer support, legal conditions and MOD support are a necessary requirement in order for reservist to be able to provide support to our military forces.

There are plenty of challenges ahead within the scope of CIMIC - one is securing participation from CIOR member countries in the committee and the continues work in the committee between meetings. However the most significant one is to choose main effort for the committee and make the best use of the committee members time and knowledge. Only this way we can provide our stakeholders with relevant input and advice.