Initial Review of NATO CIMIC Doctrine underway

A new security environment is calling for the review of the NATO CIMIC Doctrine. From today on, the CCOE will be hosting the first “Writing Team Meeting” to initiate the process of reviewing the NATO Civil-Military Cooperation Doctrine (the new Allied Joint Publication – 3.1.9).
Relevant adjustments to this doctrine will reflect the NATO policy on Civil-Military Interaction related to the current strategic security developments impacting on NATO. These are terrorism and hybrid threats from the East, as well as of the lessons learned from recent operations, and finally the results of the Wales and Warsaw NATO summits.

As the custodian of the CIMIC Doctrine, the CCOE has to accompany and advise – both from a procedural and content perspective – NATO and its member states throughout the whole reviewing process, which is expected to deliver the ratification of the agreed, updated doctrine by the end of 2017. At the same time, the custodian has to ensure that all the involved parties achieve a common consensus on the way ahead during the drafting and reviewing process.

In this initial drafting phase, the CCOE is called upon to guide the participating member states through the process to formulate the first study draft of the review. The participating nations are The Netherlands and Germany – the two framework nations of the CCOE – Italy, Norway, France, Great Britain and Poland. These nations will collaborate at the CCOE in The Hague together with the CCOE CIMIC experts, and representatives from Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Allied Joint Force Command Naples (JFNCP), Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAFS), and the Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) to develop the first draft during the current week.

Article by CCOE/PAO/Monica de Astis