Civil-Military Interactions in Disaster and Conflict Settings: A New Model

This book presents a model to help enhance civil-military interaction in disaster response settings for the benefit of affected communities and the host nation.

Militaries are increasingly deploying to assist, or are present, in areas impacted by natural hazards. Drawing on the author’s own operational experience and recent case studies of natural hazard responses, the book contributes a practical and accessible approach to civil-military interaction that enables actors to negotiate a relationship where there is shared purpose. It establishes a theoretical foundation for civil-military interaction, which is then used to describe effective interaction as a process of coordination that consists of sequential and necessary conditions that contribute to humanitarian outcomes and operational effectiveness. The book is novel because it includes the voices of affected communities and it syntheses factors that influence civil-military interaction across case studies to argue that, where context allows, civilian and military actors should focus on building a purposeful relationship that places affected communities and local leadership at the forefront of responses. Using this book, practitioners will be supported to establish relationships that contribute to their respective purposes, taking into consideration the consequences of their actions on others.

This book will be of much interest to students of civil-military relations, civil-military coordination, disaster responses, and International Relations in general.

Emily M. Chapman is serving member of the Australian Defence Force. She has held positions as Project Lead and Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Civil-Military Centre. Emily received her PhD from the University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia.