October 2008
Fundamentally, civil‐military coordination may be defined as “The essential dialogue and interaction between civilian and military actors in humanitarian emergencies that is necessary to protect and promote humanitarian principles, avoid competition, minimize inconsistency, and when appropriate pursue common goals”1 wherein military actors include “a wide spectrum of actors such as the local or national military, multi‐national forces, UN peacekeeping troops, international military observers, foreign occupying forces, regional troops or other officially organized troops”2 and humanitarian actors refer to “civilians, whether national or international, UN or non‐UN, governmental or non‐governmental, which have a commitment to humanitarian principles and are engaged in humanitarian activities.”3 It is important to note that in CPEs, more than one type of both military and humanitarian actors are likely to be present, and so coordination may entail establishing different protocols given the nature of each military actor with which humanitarian actors are involved.
