CIMIC in 360 degrees at the Atlantic

Civil-Military Cooperation may come in many different forms, depending on a global region and its particular geographic and demographic challenges. This became again very evident, when CCOE Deputy Director Colonel Johan Wagner gave a presentation on NATO CIMIC at the Military University of Portugal (Academia Militar) in Lisbon this January.

“Portugal is more focused on challenges originating in Africa and current Crisis Response Operations. Our Baltic Initiative and the relevance of CIMIC in collective defense was thus an eye opener for all participants. Especially the civilian dimension resonated well with the civilians in the audience”, explained Colonel Wagner.

Linking across the South Atlantic

The annual CIMIC course at the Academia Militar reached out to 35 participants from the Portuguese and Brazilian armed forces, civil servants from the national Ministry of Defense, as well as academics from international and non-governmental organizations.

The presentation at Lisbon provided for a unique opportunity to expose future CIMIC practitioners on both sides of the Atlantic shores to the more recent developments in NATO CIMIC.

With his particular background as a desk officer for International Military Cooperation and as a Dutch Military Attache, Colonel Wagner took particular effort in conveying the specifics of NATOs new application of CIMIC in Collective Defense, to an audience still focused on Civil-Military cooperation in out-of-area deployment regions.