There’s a difference between NATO and UN CIMIC

Both NATO and the UN use the same acronym – CIMIC – to address matters related to Civilian and Military interaction trying to help the Host Nation population in a Peace Support Operation. However, do not let the similarity full you; for NATO, CIMIC means Civil Military Cooperation whilst for the UN, CIMIC stands for Civil Military Coordination. Coordination and Cooperation are definitively not the same thing.

Most Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) do not wish to be seen “cooperating” with the military, because (according to them) that may ruin their “neutrality” reputation towards the local population. The UN is not a Neutral Organization; it is an Impartial organization, which means it will point fingers to the guilty party. However, it too does not appreciate to cooperate with the military in their (military force) initiatives, but rather coordinate both entities’ actions in order to benefit the supported community.

Military staff doesn’t normally accept and/or understand why; but there’s a reason for that … and it is a coherent one.

The main objective of the military concept of CIMIC is to support the Force Commander in the field to achieve his/her mission successfully. For that the local population acceptation and support is crucial and that is where CIMIC(cooperation) comes into place. A part of “wining hearts and minds” campaign.

For the Unite Nations’ staff, the military projects, although needed and welcomed, do not normally target the structural needs of the population, but rather the rapid, cheap and easy to execute “quick implementation projects”.

War has one dreadful characteristic: – it destroys the affected country’s infrastructures. Most of it requires a long time to fixing. A time the military does (should) not have because their missions are not expected to stay long in the war zone. The UN agencies and programs, in the other hand, stay in the refereed country for decades after peacekeeping had been achieved and peace building starts being implemented.

A UN CIMIC perspective may look at the rebuilding of the country railway; the military force commander may be looking to the rebuilding of a school. They are both necessary, but the scales and different.