During the 2015 PSOTEW, the United States Institute of
Peace (USIP) facilitated a discussion aimed at developing a
new course on civilian and military relations. The new course
will focus on developing the knowledge and skills necessary
for mid-level practitioners in the U.S. Government (USG), the
Non-Governmental Organization/International Organization
(NGO/IO), and multi-national communities to work more effectively with each other and with host country actors. For more
than a decade, civilian and military actors have been operating
in shared spaces and at every stage in the life cycle of conflict.
The results have been mixed. This interaction is only likely to
increase, and underscores the importance of common understanding, effective communication, and where practicable and
desirable, collaboration - all for the purpose of operating most
effectively in shared spaces.
Methodology
Throughout USIP’s extensive work on civ-mil relations, anecdotal evidence has continually arisen of a need for better understanding and coordination. As a result, an effort was made to
better clarify the actual need through an ongoing USIP needs
assessment, and a market analysis of existing civ-mil courses to
ensure that any USIP course not duplicate efforts, but rather fill
the remaining gaps in knowledge and training.
Since fall 2014, USIP’s Academy for International Conflict
Management and Peacebuilding has been conducting a comprehensive needs assessment to discern what current knowledge
and skill sets are necessary for work in the field. With over 130
surveys and 60 interviews to date, the majority of respondents
referenced the improvement of interagency and interorganizational coordination, communication and relations as a critical
need for professionals in the field.
These responses reinforced the anecdotal evidence, highlighting a need for additional education. USIP conducted a market
analysis to survey existing courses available for practitioners.
Data collection consisted of open-source and unclassified
information primarily from websites, course catalogues, as well
as informational interviews. In reviewing the landscape, researchers at USIP looked at over 80 courses held at 16 different
institutions including civilian government agencies, international organizations, military institutions, and NGOs. Efforts to
collect information on relevant courses and training materials
will continue.
A majority of courses surveyed (55%) were only available to
internal audiences (for example, a State Department course
available only to State Department employees). Although the
remaining 45% of courses surveyed were technically available
16
to external students, only one organization (the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) explicitly seeks to
ensure a balanced roster from both civilian and military entities.
In terms of content, approximately half of all courses surveyed
were introductory courses aimed primarily at either entry-level
professionals or practitioners unfamiliar with civ-mil issues.
From these findings, USIP concluded that although many
courses that include civ-mil issues exist, the majority are geared
toward an internal audience, and are focused primarily on bilateral technical issues of interaction with other organizations.
The final stage in preparing for the PSOTEW was bringing together the right mix of participants for the workgroup in order
to foster a deeper, more advanced conversation of civ-mil interactions and interoperability. Participants from the State Department, USAID, Department of Defense, as well as several NGOs
and a few internationals discussed common challenges and gaps
and helped frame how a course might address them through the
workgroup discussions on content and delivery methods.
Why This Course?
The course will be designed for a mixed audience, from across
the USG, NGO/IO community, and a variety of multi-national
actors, similar to the diversity of the working group itself. The
learning environment created by such a varied audience allows
the course participants to learn from the perspectives and experiences of others and provides space to actively discuss differences in cultures, goals, and timelines in a realistic and constructive
manner.
As indicated by the market analysis, many courses exist that
cover civ-mil topics from an introductory standpoint; therefore,
USIP’s course will be designed for mid-level practitioners who
already possess this basic knowledge. The course content will be
designed to identify and examine opportunities and obstacles to
better working relations among civilian and military actors so
that they may be more effective in complex environments. It will
also provide practical skills to help practitioners translate better
understanding and analysis into more effective engagement with
multiple actors.
Course Context - The PSOTEW workgroup discussions on
course content focused primarily on how civilian and military
personnel relate to each other within the complex shared operational environment through the interplay of multiple actors,
effective communication, and adaptive leadership skills.
Environment
The issue of the operational environment repeatedly cropped
up in workgroup discussions, particularly as it related to cov-