Humanitarian Assistance, Disaster Relief and Good Governance: Short-Term Presence vs Long-Term Effects
Neglecting the civilian environment during a military mission has led to difficulties in successfully completing a mission in the past. NATO has recognized that in order to be successful, it must apply a broader perspective instead of only focusing on the military dimension. This is why NATO adopted the Comprehensive Approach. The Comprehensive Approach can be understood as a concept rather than a document. The concept focuses on sustainable solutions within a state’s political, civilian, and military spheres that are necessary to effectively manage today’s complex crisis.[i] In 2003, NATO formally added Civil Military Co-operation (CIMIC) as a military facilitator to act as a link to the civil environment during military missions. Where NATO focuses on the Comprehensive Approach, civilian development organizations have adopted principles of ‘Good Governance’. Both focus on a state’s long-term development, but the principles are not always overlapping.
This article aims to discuss some issues within NATO’s long-term doctrinal focus and the current approach to Humanitarian Assistance Disaster Relief (HADR) operations and the discrepancy between the two. It argues that the desired long-term effects, such as host nation resilience, and the short-term deployment of a military entity during HADR do not match. As I will argue, NATO doctrine should develop to focus more on short-term deployments in the field of HADR. CIMIC doctrine and education are too focused on long-term military operations and not on disaster relief operations. One way to partly overcome the issue is using a CIMIC Liaison Officers (LNO) as a strategic asset. The CIMIC LNO can build a network with civilian organizations and gather information even if there is no mention of a natural disaster or a military deployment, yet. Additionally, I suggest using Good Governance principles as a tool of analysis that can be used in the pre-deployment stage, especially in the case of potential disaster relief operations. These principles are still long-term focused and match the concept of Good Governance as applied by civilian organizations. Lastly, military doctrines should be adjusted to match with civilian goals in disaster relief operations. To demonstrate this idea in practice, the Royal Netherlands Navy in the Caribbean will be used wherever an illustration or example is needed.
Civilian organizations operating in an area that is prone to natural disasters are often looking not only for short-term solutions and the help of first responders but also for long-term solutions. Paradoxically, states requesting the help of other countries after a natural disaster often are already less resilient than other states. For example, the 13 poorest countries in North America[ii] are almost all situated in the second most disaster-prone region in the world regularly hit by natural and human-induced hazards.[iii] Due to climate change, natural disasters (such as an earthquakes or hurricanes) will increasingly harm these states. When such a state is overwhelmed by a disaster, it can call upon other states for support. There is in fact an upward trend in the use of military personnel and assets to provide domestic and international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.[iv] The Netherlands Navy in the Caribbean is on stand-by from June to December during the hurricane season to support Caribbean islands that are struck by a natural disaster.[v] Its forces are trained year-round to support the six Caribbean islands within the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba, Curacao, Saint Martin, Bonaire, St Eustatius, and Saba. Furthermore, over the past years, its forces have been deployed to islands in the Caribbean region that are not part of the Netherlands, such as the Bahamas, Dominica, and Haiti.[vi]
Studying current literature and doctrine shows that viewpoints on short-term HADR operations are insufficiently developed. This can be explained as follows. Many Alliance states follow the last-resort principle. According to this principle, military means are unique capabilities for which no alternatives exist; they are available in the short term to comply with the urgent demand of the government of the affected state; they are civil managed—i.e., the civil management organization stays in control; and their deployment is temporary and delineated in scale.[vii] In the Caribbean region, civil society responds first, mostly as part of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), with crisis response organizations[viii] managing the crisis and calling upon the military for specific, time-limited support. See Figure 1 for a visual explanation of the last-resort principle.
Figure 1. The Last-Resort Principle in Perspective
Too often HADR operations are seen as military operations, whereas the characteristics of different types of missions vary. During such a short-term period, there is perhaps no need for a Comprehensive Approach. However, there is an enormous difference between defensive operations, offensive operations, large-scale combat operations, stability operations, and disaster operations, to name but a few.[ix] Therefore, it is worth looking at other concepts that could be applied during short-term HADR operations. Short-term HADR operations should have a separate CIMIC doctrine, as the characteristics of those kind of operations differ in deployment length, mission goals, and security implications. During disaster operations military goals are probably most in line with civilian goals. Other types of military operations may not lend themselves to the application of civilian concepts in its doctrine. However, in order to be successful, HADR operations must rely on connections with the civil world.[x]
The AJP 9, the leading doctrine on CIMIC for NATO, states that CIMIC can be used in both Article 5 Collective Defence and Non-Article 5 Crisis Response Operations.[xi] In essence, the doctrine does not specify different operations but has one general approach to CIMIC in military operations. Furthermore, other doctrines on the topic have a long-term perspective that does not match with the short-term planning horizon after a natural crisis. The United States Navy, for example, has a very extensive Navy Humanitarian and Civic Assistance Operations document.[xii] This document has a planning horizon of over 1.5 years but does not provide a framework for operations that have a planning horizon of just four to ten days (i.e., the period of time in which military usually responds to a natural disaster). The NATO Doctrine for the Military Contribution to Humanitarian Assistance states that there must be operational understanding in order to develop a proper humanitarian disaster plan, but how can one make such a proper plan in such a short period of time? The document describes disaster relief as a separate type of response that requires rapid reaction; however, it does not provide a set of tools on how to do this.[xiii]
The Netherlands Navy has supported states in the Caribbean for decades. In 2019, the Netherlands Navy supported the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian with 650 military personnel for ten days. However, research has shown that the preconceived structure and working method during this response period did not address local needs: there seemed to be limited information available, and therefore, it was difficult to estimate the local needs.[xiv] Although CIMIC liaisons were sent as quickly as possible, they were only connected with the Emergency Operations Center after boots were on the ground. In response to this recognized circumstance, contacts between the military and civilian organizations remain in place, which will help in future operations. Research shows that qualified and eligible liaisons can have a mediating role between the military and civil environment.[xv] The Netherlands Navy now follows an operational planning process to prepare for assistance operations after natural disasters in the Caribbean to the furthest extent, especially logistically. Still, ad-hoc situations are difficult to prepare for and creativity and flexibility by its forces is needed on the tactical level.
So far, I have presented some problems with current doctrine and HADR operations. Now, I will describe several possible solutions.
Studying the phenomenon of Good Governance, it is evident that there is often a mismatch between civilian needs and military doctrine, and Good Governance could close the gap at least partly. Good Governance is in many ways similar to NATO’s Comprehensive Approach, another long-term focused concept. However, NATO doctrine is focused on successfully completing a military mission, whereas Good Governance focuses on long-term, sustainable solutions. As previously stated, states prone to being affected by natural disasters are often already poor or developing countries. Therefore, it is likely that in those states civilian organizations are already applying ‘Good Governance’ principles to make the state more resilient to natural disasters (among other issues).
The contemporary understanding of the term ‘Good Governance’ is a set of principles applied by civilian organizations that aim to facilitate the development of a state, nationally or internationally.[xvi] The term was first applied by the World Bank in 1998, followed later by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and is used nowadays by many other governmental and non-governmental organizations. The set of principles is used as a framework to set goals and review current and future policies and activities in order to facilitate development. In short, good governance relates to the political and institutional processes and outcomes that are necessary to achieve the goals of development. The true test of ‘good’ governance is the degree to which it delivers on the promise of human rights: civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights.[xvii] When we (military) think about how we could better match with civilian organizations in HADR deployments, we could perhaps start with applying civil concepts to our doctrine. By realizing how Good Governance Principles can be supported by the military[xviii] as well as how these principles may affect a military mission, the gap between civilian disaster organizations and the military can be reduced. It could become easier to operate on the tactical level and therefore to creatively and flexibly navigate through the sea of everyday issues which are difficult to predict.
Table 1. Good Governance Principles
Effectiveness
Accountability
Inclusiveness
Participatory
Consensus-oriented
Transparent
Responsive
Follows the Rule of Law
These difficulties can be overcome through a different, long-term approach. Military policy makers may not be up for it, however, as the military is only used as a last resort, and the focus of developing military doctrines should be on mostly kinetic type of operations. Without adjusting doctrine, there are still some steps that can be made in the right direction. Currently, the Netherlands Navy in the Caribbean has four CIMIC officers who serve as CIMIC Liaison Officers in the Caribbean municipalities of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The advantage of using CIMIC Liaison Officers is that they are accessible on the tactical and operational levels. Informal meetings between liaison officers and civilians can be held that do not necessarily lead to formal agreements but nevertheless facilitate an understanding of the civil environment. The Netherlands Navy, for example, sent CIMIC Liaison Officers on short-term HADR deployments in 2019 for the first time.[xix] This led to increased contacts between the Netherlands Navy and organizations such as CDEMA. Though CIMIC alone can solve some issues, military organizations need to change their approach and mindset.
Although Good Governance is a civil concept, and the military’s mandate is never to govern, Good Governance forms a crucial element of a military mission’s success.[xx] Thus far, Good Governance principles have not been actively used as an analytical tool to analyse potential states that ask for support. By doing so, enablers (factors to exploit) and disablers (factors to mitigate)[xxi] of a potential mission in future can be identified in advance. One effect can be that during short-term deployments there will be less friction between the civil and military missions as there is increased understanding between the sides. Another benefit of using a civil-oriented analytical tool is that in general, intelligence teams already use analytical tools such as PMESII/ASCOPE. This is an analysis methodology commonly utilized to analyse an operational environment on the political, military, economic, social, informational, and infrastructural levels. Within this framework, there is no room for analysing long-term civilian organizations goals, organizational cooperation, and interpersonal levels of cooperation. Those insights, however, need to be understood to successfully conduct HADR operations. Therefore, using Good Governance principles to further understand the civil environment specifically helps militaries better understand the local context from a different perspective. In 2012, the NATO CIMIC Centre of Excellence (CCOE) in the Hague released a publication[xxii] on how Good Governance principles could be used as analytical tool on the military-strategic level. This document, however, does not take short-term disaster response operations into account.
To summarize, because the military is often deployed as a last resort during HADR operations, there are some disadvantages: deployment is reactive to a natural disaster, and the current doctrines do not sufficiently play into the unique characteristics needed to assist a civil response to a natural disaster. CIMIC and HADR military doctrines focus on long-term military deployments with military goals in mind; however, these generally do not correspond to civilian goals led by the principles of Good Governance. I suggest, therefore, that Allied militaries specifically focus on a HADR doctrine that focuses on short-term deployments, in which CIMIC will be highly incorporated. For future research, the principles of Good Governance can be studied in the context of disaster relief operations and how the military can actively analyse states through this lens before disaster relief deployments. The Netherlands Navy in the Caribbean has taken some sufficient steps in closing the gap between military and civil organizations by adding CIMIC officers to its organization. However, for HADR operations to be more effective, this will require a change in doctrine and mind-set throughout the wider military organization.
About the Author
Karlijn Hopman-Calis (OF-2), age 34, is a Dutch Navy lieutenant and CIMIC Liaison Officer stationed in Aruba since January 2023. She has three core tasks: function as a CIMIC Liaison between Aruban civilian entities and the Netherlands Naval HQ based on Curacao, function as a CIMIC Liaison between Aruban civilian entities and the naval base on Aruba, and function as a CIMIC Liaison and commander of a taskforce that is on standby to deploy to Saba to assist after a (humanitarian) disaster.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Royal Netherlands Navy or the Netherlands Ministry of Defense.
Notes
[i] Cimic Center of Excellence, CIMIC HANDBOOK, Chapter 1. NATO and a comprehensive approach (2020).
[ii] UNDP, Poorest Countries in North America 2023, information retrieved online at www.worldpopulationreview.com
[iii] European Commission, Caribbean Factsheet, (European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations, 2023) information retrieved online at www.civil-protection-humanitarian-aid.ec.europa.eu
[iv] Dean V. Canyon, Military Provision of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief in Non-Conflict Crisis, (University of Florida, 2017), p.1-3
[v] The forces are specifically comprised of fleet personnel and assets, marines, local military from Aruba and Curacao, Military Police and land forces.
[vi] The Netherlands Forces have deployed to these islands in the past on HADR operations
[vii] NATO, Allied Joint Doctrine for the Military Contribution to Humanitarian Assistance (AJP-3.4.3 Edition A, 2015) p.17-19 and Dr. M.T.I.B. Bollen, Civiel-militaire interactie, (Breda, 2019), p.8
[viii] There are several crisis response organizations operating in the Caribbean region: the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and EU Crisis Response Planning and Operations.
[ix] See for example the U.S. Civil Affairs Operations FM 3-57 which applies a work mode to all the different kinds of operations.
[x] J.P. Kalkman, Task Force Disaster Relief Bahamas, (Militaire Spectator, 2022), p.516
[xi] NATO, AJP-9, NATO Civil-Military Co-Operation (CIMIC) Doctrine (NATO, 2003), https://www.nato.int/ims/docu/ajp-9.pdf p2.
[xii] Department of the Navy, Office of the Chief Naval Operations, Navy Humanitarian And Civic Assistance Operations NTTP 3-57.3, (Norfolk, 2014).
[xiii] NATO, Allied Joint Doctrine for the Military Contribution to Humanitarian Assistance (AJP-3.4.3 Edition A, 2015) p.28
[xiv] J.P. Kalkman, Task Force Disaster Relief Bahamas, (Militaire Spectator, 2022), p.510
[xv] J.P. Kalkman, Focus on the frontline: Civil-military collaboration in domestic and European crisis management (Amsterdan, Vrije Universiteit, 2019)
[xvi] Frances N. Botchway, Good Governance: The Old, the New, the Principle and the Elements, (Florida Journal of International Law: Vol 13: Iss. 2, Article 2, 2001).
[xvii] OHCHR, About good governance, information retrieved online at www.ohchr.org/en/good-governance
[xviii] Allard-Jan ten Berge, Good Governance Makes Sense (The Hague: Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence, 2012).
[xix] J.P. Kalkman, Task Force Disaster Relief Bahamas, (Militaire Spectator, 2022), p.510
[xx] Allard-Jan ten Berge, Good Governance Makes Sense (The Hague: Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence, 2012), 33.
[xxi] Allard-Jan ten Berge, Good Governance Makes Sense (The Hague: Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence, 2012), 38
[xxii] The document can be found online on the website of the Civil-Military Cooperation Centre of Excellence, also official references can be found above.
Image: https://english.defensie.nl/organisation/navy/navy-units/dutch-naval-command-caribbean
