Lesson 5: UN-CIMIC: Coordination, Information Management, and Command and Control

 Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Christopher Holshek, co-author of this course. I’m a retired Colonel in the United States Army in doing CIMIC for 25 of those 30 years in just about any particular kind of way that you can imagine. I was very fortunate to have served in the United Nations in both civil and military capacities, and I draw a lot of my insights based on that, and a lot of the insights of CIMIC officers I’ve had the great privilege of serving with both in and outside of the United Nations. Now, in Lessons 1 through 4 that Cedric took you through, he provided the context and the concept of what UN-CIMIC is, and the principles of CIMIC that you should commit to your memory. From this point on in the course, we are now going to turn more to the practical side of applying those principles in many different ways and means. And we’re going to start right off on the bat with really the meat and potatoes of UN-CIMIC – and that is coordination and information management. Civil-military coordination is done for two major reasons, two imperatives, if you will. One is this very complex environment that we’re working in: all kinds of different actors working at different speeds, for different purposes, and making sure that at least we’re not interfering with each other as much as possible, but more working closely together. The other major driver or imperative for better civil-military coordination is the fact that the resources are getting more and more dear, more and more scarce. That not just includes people; that includes money, and many other aspects and assets that the mission has. So we have to take what we’ve got and make it work better, together. And that’s really the essence of CIMIC, and that’s why we do it. CIMIC is a knowledge-based business. The currency of that business is information. So, in addition to coordination, you have to be very expert at how to handle information: how you get it, why you get it, for what purpose, how you put it together, and how you present it to others and, importantly, how you share it with others to create the effect that you’re looking for. So, every CIMIC operator needs to be very good in both of those areas. And that’s what this lesson will help you do. When you’re coordinating with people, you’re also collecting information, obviously. You’re interacting with people. There’s one question you need to keep in mind, whenever you’re collecting information, or even preparing information as a CIMIC officer, and that is: “Who is doing what, when, where, how and why?” Commit that to memory, because every time you’re thinking about gathering information or putting that information together, that’s how you should frame it in your own mind. That’s really what CIMIC is trying to do, because it’s trying to get a better picture of that interaction that’s going on between all these different players. Now, the other thing that’s discussed in this lesson is the relationship between the operational and tactical levels of CIMIC. The important thing to remember is that in any case the UN-CIMIC principles apply, and that there’s a connection between those two levels. That is, what goes on at the tactical level is very important to helping the operational level, and what goes on at the operational level is supportive of what goes on at the tactical level. So, remember that your contributions to the mission – in terms of assessments, in terms of reports, in terms of information sharing – are helping to shape that overall mission. Keep that in mind because that’s why information sharing and coordination as a UN-CIMIC officer is so qualitatively different than for most other folks.