Proof of the Concept! The first NCAAC concludes

Last Friday 13 students representing seven NATO countries graduated from the first regular iteration of the NATO CIMIC Analysis and Assessment Course (NCAAC) held at the Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence (CCOE) in the Hague, The Netherlands.

The course allowed the students to discover the field of CIMIC Analysis and Assessment (CIMIC A&A) by exploring the CIMIC A&A workflow, its phases and subsequent tasks. Simultaneously, the students were familiarised with numerous Structured Analytic Techniques (SAT) forming a sort of “ready to use” tool box. Acknowledging existing pitfalls in writing and visualising analytic products, time was made available to create convincing CIMIC A&A products aiming at the customer’s satisfaction. An Excursions provided insights on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) as such and was continued with a demonstration on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can boost OSINT.

The course was excellently supported by representatives of the Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFC BS), Dutch 1 Civil-Military Interaction Command, the Dutch National Defense Academy (NLDA), TRAVERSALS Analytics and Intelligence Ltd., Strukturierte Analyse Deutschland and Mr. Randolph H. Pherson.

The NCAAC takes advantage of the CIMIC Analysis and Assessment Concept developed by the CCOE. Thus, the opportunity was taken to once more test the concept´s applicability against the requirements formulated by Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) J9 (CIMIC). The individual and cooperative feedback provided by the students last Friday is as encouraging as it can be. The course has proven its value and lives up to CIMIC´s level of ambition to provide the desperately needed understanding of the Civil Environment based on a robust and incontestable CIMIC analysis, assessment and advice.

 “This course is the missing link” and the proof of the concept, one of the students stated.