I. Introduction
As a member of the CIMIC Staff, whether you are a staff member or a fieldworker, you may be required to undertake missions that involves different types of relationships ranging from cooperation to armed conflict. In such circumstances, you may need to perform specific CIMIC tasks and interact with various military and non-military actors, such as the host nation's (HN) armed forces, public administration, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO), the private sector, or the local population. Additionally, you may be tasked with representing your unit at civil-military conferences or as a liaison at multinational and national HQs or crisis response assemblages. This ensures an unrestricted link to the civil sector in support of NATO's contribution to a comprehensive approach.
Chapter 2 of this handbook provides you with the fundamentals of NATO CIMIC. It is designed to support your doctrinal knowledge and to make you aware of the context in which CIMIC, as a Joint Function must be understood. The comprehensive approach is described as one of the key tenets of NATO CIMIC, and the Joint Function Framework is introduced to ensure your understanding of all Joint Functions and the role of CIMIC within this framework. This chapter also clarifies the distinction between the Joint Function CIMIC and the staff function CIMIC by explaining their core activities. While this chapter may be seen as high-level doctrine, CIMIC operators need to understand that CIMIC as a joint function is crucial for their task, even at the lowest tactical level. Therefore, this chapter also highlights cooperation with the staff and HQ and the integration and interaction with other internal branches. Furthermore, this chapter points out the CIMIC contribution to non-NATO military organisations such as UN forces and CIMIC relationships with US Civil Affairs (CA). It will help you figure out distinctions and similarities, different approaches, divergences, and different ambitions.
The CIMIC contribution to operations across all domains and tactical activities is covered in
Chapter 3.
Chapter 4 describes the various relevant actors and their principles. It identifies the responsibilities of (non-military) actors within their areas of expertise.
Chapter 5 describes the step-by-step contribution of the operational and tactical planning process, highlighting the role of the CIMIC Staff. This chapter focuses on the proactive contribution of the CIMIC Staff in the tactical planning process and the key outcomes of each step.
Chapter 6 covers the military's role in human security and the Cross-Cutting Topics (CCT). The CCTs cover various topics that could impact the mission in different ways but are not the military's main responsibilities. As such, you may often be responsible for considering them.
Chapter 7 deals with resilience. It focuses on layered resilience, resilience through civil preparedness, and the seven baseline requirements.
Chapters 8 contain templates, sketches, and reports that can be helpful in your daily work, training, exercises and missions.