Civil-Military Cooperation in
New Era
by Hisato
Senior
Research Councilor,
Foreword
A long-pending question of post-War
The terrorist attack of
It would be worthwhile for the defense of Japan in the 21st Century to deliberate, taking notice of European nations as advanced mentors, on the civil-military (to be paraphrased, in case of Japan, civil-Self-Defense Forces) cooperation (CIMIC) in this new era.
1. Fields and Functions of CIMIC
The NATO takes a broad view of the CIMIC concept that encompasses the entire spectrum of actions and measures involving the citizens, other public institutions and the military, in the region where the NATO forces are stationed, camped or operated.
Sharing the common objectives of defending the nation and the nationals, the military and the civil defenses are interdependent on each other in many aspects, and the base of close cooperation lies in the fully functioning civil defense structure.
Besides its fundamental of 'civil protection', the general mission of civil defense includes the sustenance of national and governmental functions, provisioning of food, water, energy and other essentials of life, and support to the military in terms of manpower, goods and furnishing of labor. In addition, the general concept of 'CIMIC' further contains the military aids to the civil in some limited fields. A review is given below of functions and actions of three particular CIMIC fields where the military has large part to play.
(1) Civil Protection
Cited as main functions of civil protection are: ① self protection, ② disaster management, ③ construction of protective facilities, ④ wide-area rescue, ⑤ alarm and warning, ⑥ health services, ⑦ residence control and evacuation, and ⑧ cultural property protection. Main items of function and action are as follows, concerning the above ⑤ and ⑦ that most directly involve military operation.
a. Alarm and Warning
An advance collection of information on the situations likely to cause harm and damage to the civil life, and supplying timely alarm and warning, are essential to the smooth and effective execution of disaster management including citizens' self protection, fire prevention and fighting, rescue and care, damage retrieval and repair.
In this regard, the military is to be chiefly relied on to supply the pre-situation symptom information through its capabilities of long-range collection and expertise in analysis and interpretation, based on which the wide-area alarm and warning system is to be established by a national plan to give timely alarm and warning to the residents of the concerned region.
b. Residence Control and Evacuation
In case of armed attack, the execution of residence control and evacuation of residents are necessary both for the residents protection and for securing freedom of action of military operation. The responsibility originally rests with the civil side and local municipalities, but two items are to be performed as CIMIC activities:
① Planning and execution of control of population movement intending refuge and relocation.
② Construction of protection facilities for those to remain home, due either to greater danger of evacuation or to causing substantial impediment to military movement and public order.
(2) Civil Aids to Military
Aids to be supplied by the civil to the military operation consist of those in the fields of originally civil activities, and those under which the military operation and measure are performed.
a. Aids in Civil Fields
Of many-sided aspects of aids in the fields of originally civil activities, continual in nature and broad in range are the furnishing of goods and facilities, and of labor.
(a) Furnishing of Goods and Facilities
Provisioning of food, water, energy and other essentials of life to residents is one of the main functions of civil defense, and similar support is generally to be provided to the military as well. Furnishing of hospital and other civil services and means of transportation are also expected.
(b) Furnishing of Labor and Service
Furnishing of labor required by the military and service of personnel and goods transportation, as well as maintenance of military equipment are important part of civil aids to the military. Also included is furnishing of labor for the maintenance and repair of supply routes.
b. Military Activities Performed under Civil Aids
Such activities of essentially military nature as following are however to be performed under the civil and municipal aids: mobilization of personnel and supply goods, media and public relations, infrastructure maintenance of roads and bridges and corpse retrieval.
Further, such activities as following are to be performed in coordination with the active civil participation and as a cooperative measure: commands to assure the smooth movement and deployment of military troops, preparation and execution of area denial, and hygienic and health services for the personnel.
(3) Military Aids to Civil
Aids expected of the military to the civil generally include the following:
① Direct rescue operation in case of wide-range contingency.
② Guarding and protection of important civil facilities under armed attack.
③ Countermeasures to the organized armed insurrection.
④ Technical guidance for the orderly movement and evacuation of residents.
⑤ Common use of military airfields for emergency transportation.
It is also required that the local municipal leaders are informed, so long as does not negatively affect the military operation, of the troops' movement in rear areas, to avoid obstruction of military operation by the civil activities.
2. Changes in Security Environments and Conditions
Of the rapid and many-sided changes in recent environments and conditions of security, what would gravely affect the effective CIMIC, and therefore call for necessary measures, are the diversification of threats and dangers to be countered, the rising costs of high-tech armaments, the dwindling of youth population and the growing impact of media.
(1) Diversification of Threats and Dangers
More than a decade after the termination of Cold War, the new international framework is such that to avoid nation-to-nation wars and to settle disputes in peaceful terms. On the other hand however, new dangers and threats are looming in the form of minor states or non-national groups challenging the powers or national authorities by means of terrorism and so-called asymmetrical measures, or in the form of armed conflicts arising from ethnical and religious antagonism, eventually to involve concerned states of the region.
The forms and means of recent terrorism, in addition to the traditional arms and explosives, tend to diversify to involve the nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapons and cyber space terrorism, and the activities are becoming to be internationally networked. The threat of NBC terrorism in particular will gravely affect the public mind and can lead to a general panic if inadequately countered. Cyber terrorism against the atomic power stations, chemical plants and air and rail traffic control centers can lead to major accidents.
(2) Rising Costs of High-Tech Armaments
Recent advancement of military technology, in particular the information technology (IT), is producing high-tech armaments which in turn necessitates modernization of military organization, management and operation, one result of which is the need for highly skilled personnel advanced in knowledge and technological expertise. The modernization through high-tech also results in rising costs of armaments; the need for more efficiency and economy of military equipment and operation is much emphasized.
(3) Dwindling Youth Population
As has been recognized
for many years in
The January 2002 forecast by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research indicates that the age group for the Self-Defense Force recruitment (18 to 26 years) peaked at the 8.9 million in 1994 and then is in rapid decrease, reaching 5.6 million in 2018, then will slightly level but still decrease to 4.07 million in 2048; this is less than 47 % of the peak.
Not only
(4) Growing Impact of Media
The terrorist attack
on the
The ever-growing international network of mass media, accompanied as they are by ever-refined techniques, keep impacting the public opinions to such extent as directly affecting the formulation of domestic and international policies, and further as being close to governing the defense policy and decisions of military move in case of emergency, to touch the fundamentals of national existence.
3. Issues of Attention in Future CIMIC
As has been described in the previous section, the changes in environments and conditions of security are variously affecting the planning and execution of the CIMIC. Among them, the issues as follows are to be specially attended in the CIMIC, for a nation to be effectively prepared for and adequately to counter the possible future national contingency.
(1) Establishment of Total Defense
The object of future attack by the transnational, supranational dangers and asymmetric threats will not be limited, as in previous days, to the military targets but will involve the civil people and targets as well, in the form of terrorism and subversion, without discrimination of wartime or peace and choosing any timing and area. In case of nation-to-nation armed conflicts, while the decisive factor will continue to be the battle between the military, the weight of societal and psychological factors will ever increase.
This situation calls for establishment of comprehensive national defense structure that includes civil defense, for a nation adequately to respond to the possible diversified nature of contingency. From the viewpoint of effective CIMIC, what is in need is the construction of structure for the mutual strengthening of cooperative coordination for each side to perform its basic role in orderly and smooth manner to counter the diversifying threats.
a. Strengthening Cooperative Coordination
In countering the future asymmetric threats, what require particularly strong cooperative coordination of the civil and the military are the cyber warfare and terrorism and psychological war.
(a) Counter-Cyber War
It is reported in
The universal accessibility of cyber space from anywhere in the world makes identification of terrorists and attackers and their intentions difficult; it is desirable, but technically difficult, to detect and reject a cyber attack at the moment of its access to the network. New attack techniques are daily devised and applied, to counter which in an adequate manner it is essential continually to survey, track, analyze and evaluate the collected data on a broad basis, and to develop effective countermeasures by combined cooperative expertise.
(b) Psychological Defense
Along with the political and economical, the psychological stability is a prerequisite to adequate countering of national contingency; to be anticipated in future warfare is the increased pressure on public's psychology by pervasive use of asymmetrical means. The antagonists are expected to make combined use of falsifying, groundless rumors, misleading and intentional misinformation and propaganda, threateningly hinting at terrorism and NBC attacks, to build unease among the public and to brew estrangement between the civil and the military.
To attain to the highest aim of psychological defense, which is the sustainment and promotion of nationals' will to resist and defend, it is necessary for the civil and military institutions to execute required defense measures in close cooperation; particularly the mutual trust of the military public relations officials and the media people is indispensable for successful psychological defense.
The prime responsibility to counter the hostile propaganda and misinformation has so far been regarded to have rested with the governmental and municipal organs, with the result that the military generally tended to be negative or unconcerned toward the information supply and the accountability to the public. Actually it is now one of the foremost missions of military commanders, at war or at peace.
b. Building Coordination Mechanism
For the effective accomplishment of essential aims of civil defense and the orderly and smooth operation of the military, it is necessary to build a permanent mechanism to coordinate the mutual support of the civil and the military, which also should keep itself operative for the case of contingency by performing training activities based on national contingency plans.
A centralized as well as local coordination mechanisms are needed to be built, organizing all concerned institutions, for the purpose of emergency civil road and communication traffic control to avoid obstruction of military operation, provision and distribution of critical supply goods for competing civil and military needs, the means of air and rail transportation, military guarding of critical civil facilities and civil protection including that against the NBC attack.
(2) Mutual Utilization of Capabilities
a. Military Utilization of Civil Capabilities
In view of societal digitization, rising cost of high-tech armaments and dwindling of youth population, the need to utilize civil capabilities for the military (so-called 'privatization') is gaining weight as a means to make optimum use of limited national human and property resources, and to fulfill the requirements for economy and efficiency. Among the main issues are expanded scope for privatization and promotion of combined civil and military activities.
(a) Expansion of Privatization
Privatization has
already been widely accepted among the military of developed nations, including
The post-Cold War
change of environments and diversification of military roles are calling for
still wider application of privatization.
Recent instances in
As another example,
the
(b) Promotion of Systematic Activities
In pursuit of economy and efficiency in the defense structure under the new and austere environments and conditions, the civil and the military need to cooperate, sharing common awareness and aim, in a systematic manner. Cooperation in the intelligence activities and personnel development and utilization, in particular, will have to be promoted under especially strong leadership.
o Intelligence Activities
Such diversified threats including the terrorism, illegal inflow of mass refuge, guerrilla and commando attacks will have to be countered under close cooperation of the civil and the military, and the local and the national institutions, by building seamless intelligence network and through continual activities.
It is especially so in
o Personnel Development and Utilization
The increasing demands exist for gifted personnel and highly skilled technicians as the military is modernized in high-tech equipment. This applies commonly to the civil and industrial demands, and the two are mutually competitive. In view of dwindling youth population, it is necessary that the personnel development to assure human resources supply receive comprehensive measures in national level, and the civil and the military cooperate to complement each other in a long-term basis to realize actual benefit for the both.
b. Military Assistance to Build Civil Emergency Management
The civil emergency management capabilities seem generally adequate in terms of initial response and damage containment: the local municipalities and the quasi-public institutions like the Red Cross, and private organizations possess various response capabilities; the police can respond to usual terrorism and recently special troops are being prepared to counter the NBC terrorism. These, however, are still much inadequate to respond to the rapidly increasing recent terrorism that involve large-scale disaster and other threats that require specialized expertise and equipment.
After the 9-11 attack
against the
In contrast to the civil, the military possess special operational capabilities like the NBC protection units and intelligence expert groups, the like of which are not found among the civil. The Japanese Defense Agency and Self-Defense Forces, in addition to the existing 101st Chemical Protection Unit directly reporting to the Director-General, are reported to be studying the establishment of special unit to counter NBC terrorism. In such manner the military is expected, besides the obvious response to the contingency, to contribute to the improvement of civil capabilities through the CIMIC by education and training, in terms of civil members' expertise enhancement and of such organized activities as the disaster management centers.
Afterword
The course of CIMIC to meet the environments and conditions of the new era have been studied. It would be necessary however, in order to harvest the real crop of cooperation in the austere situations of the future, to go beyond mere cooperation and collaboration, but further to address the issues in sharing of common aim and development of solidarity. When the military in this regard request the civil aids, it never means to let the civilians fight with the enemy, but to assure orderly military operation on the basis of effectively functioning CIMIC.
From this viewpoint
three items deserve special attention in promotion of the civil-Self-Defense
Forces cooperation in
① As a means to and in step with sharing information, building up of information security measures, particularly in terms of cyber space classification and safeguard measures.
② Building up in peacetime of framework and conditions of cooperation between the Self- Defense Forces and the media for public relations in line with national interest, for the case of armed attacks and other contingencies.
② Structuring of crisis management organizations as unified efforts of the central and local governments, and formulation of contingency management plans in peacetime in order rapidly and effectively to respond to terrorism and dangers; and, according to which, execution of training and exercises with participation of Self-Defense Forces and other concerned units.
For the purpose of rapid realization of such measures and building up of national crisis management structure to counter the various threats and dangers of the future, it is desired that the emergency legislation should be formulated under multi-faced studies including civil defense, and that it should be made into a law with all possible speed.
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