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The post-Cold War era has ushered in an array of complex challenges, expanding the scope of security agendas for states and multilateral organizations alike. This transformation necessitated regional and international approaches, encompassing multifaceted security threats such as human rights abuses, international terrorism, climate change, migration, pandemics, and cyberattacks. As a result, coordination between civilian and military actors became indispensable. However, this shift brought forth a multitude of civil-military concepts, each tailored to specific entities but resulting in significant confusion due to subtle variations in terminology and interpretation. For instance, the United Nations, European Union, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization employ various civil-military concepts, often sharing similar terms but conveying distinct meanings. Such conceptual disparities can lead to misunderstandings and hinder effective coordination. This paper introduces an analytical tool that categorizes organization-specific civil-military concepts into archetypes and provides a repository of official concepts and their summaries. The analytical framework is based on four core parameters of each civil-military concept, i.e. the main perspective, the scope, the level of applicability, and whether the concept entails a dedicated function. This resource aims to facilitate a common language for navigating and bridging different civil-military concepts. While essential for national militaries in multinational operations, this guide also benefits civilians engaging with military organizations, providing insights into military approaches to civil-military relations and aiding in identifying interlocutors within military structures. Ultimately, this framework accommodates future developments in civil-military concepts, enabling a contextual understanding within the existing conceptual landscape.

In Brazil, for at least 15 years, civilians have participated in a series of training sessions for UN peacekeeping operations, generally organized by military personnel. Most of the time, this participation has been secondary. In 2022, Brazil once again hosted a remote site of Exercise Viking: this is an international mega-training, assisted by computer, which aims to prepare civilians, police and soldiers to be deployed in missions by international organizations in unstable contexts, including peacekeeping operations. By describing the participation of civilians in this Exercise and comparing it with the previous edition, from 2018, the article aims to demonstrate that, in contrast to the participation of civilians in other trainings in Brazil, Viking 22 broke with the existing paradigm by offering a opportunity to insert civilians in joint training, thus becoming an important precedent for future exercises on peace operations.

No Brasil, há pelo menos 15 anos, civis participam de uma série de treinamentos paraoperações de paz da ONU, geralmente organizados por militares. Na maioria das vezes,essa participação tem sido secundária. Em 2022, o Brasil sediou novamente um site remoto do Exercício Viking: trata-se de um mega-treinamento internacional, assistido porcomputador, que visa preparar civis, policiais e militares para serem desdobrados emmissões de organismos internacionais em contextos instáveis, aí incluídas as operaçõesde paz. Ao descrever a participação de civis neste Exercício e compará-la com a ediçãoanterior, de 2018, o artigo visa demonstrar que, em contraste com a participação de civisem outros treinamentos no Brasil, o Viking 22 rompeu com o paradigma existente aooferecer uma oportunidade de inserção de civis em treinamentos conjuntos, configurando-se, assim, como um importante precedente para futuros exercícios sobreoperações de paz.

Why are some non-state armed groups more violent than others? Why do some groups resort to inhumane means and methods of war while others restrain from doing so? In trying to answer these questions, a growing number of scholars and practitioners have focused on the drivers of restraint behaviour. However, defining and measuring restraint can be challenging. In this post, Henrique Garbino, Doctoral Candidate at the Swedish Defence University, discusses how we can define and measure restraint focusing on the use of landmines and similar explosive devices by non-state armed groups. This post is based on Henrique’s recent article, “Rebels Against Mines? Legitimacy and Restraint on Landmine Use in the Philippines,” published in Security Studies on 23rd June 2023. 

Joint training is usually cited as a possible solution to the lack of coordination and cooperation between the various actors present in the area of a peace operation. Exercises are an opportunity to promote mutual understanding, trust, cooperation and interoperability among organizations, including civilian, law enforcement and military. Ironically, planning such exercises is itself a coordination and cooperation challenge. This article explores the multidimensional exercise planning process and offers advice on incident design. The recommendations deal with the composition of the planning team, the definition of participants and training objectives, the interaction between participants and between different levels, the multidimensional nature of the exercise and prioritizing the quality, not quantity, of incidents.

What drives restraint in armed conflict? Recent studies have examined different factors contributing to restraint behaviour, mainly focusing on strategic incentives, such as seeking legitimacy from international audiences or securing support from local communities. In this post, Henrique Garbino, Doctoral Candidate at the Swedish Defence University, and Matthew Bolton, Professor at Pace University, explore, instead, how traditional humanitarian norms protecting the innocent, the land, and the body may influence restraint on the use of landmines and similar explosive devices. They conclude that we should not perceive such norms as inadequate alternatives to international humanitarian law; instead, they may serve as a basis for extending global norms beyond the existing laws of war.

Rebels have become the most prolific users of landmines but still display significant variation in how they employ and restrict the weapon’s use. This article argues that how rebels exercise restraint on landmine use depends on which audiences they rely on most. In a comparative case study of three Philippine rebel groups—the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Abu Sayyaf Group, and the New People’s Army—this article highlights three main findings. First, rebels reliant on voluntary compliance from local communities are more likely to limit the effects of landmines on their perceived constituency. Second, when rebels have conciliatory relations with the government, they are more likely to comply with national law, reciprocate government behavior, and limit the effects of landmines on the government’s constituents. Finally, rebels seeking legitimacy from human-rights-conscious foreign sponsors are more likely to comply with international law related to landmine use. 

Russia’s withdrawal from the Black Sea grain deal in July 2023 and any further reduction of Ukrainian grain exports are likely to have serious implications for both Ukraine’s agricultural sector and economy and for food security far beyond Europe’s borders, driving up food prices and hindering humanitarian agencies’ ability to respond to food crises. However, the war has not only impacted Ukraine’s ability to export food but also its food production. Extensive contamination with landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) could keep large areas of agricultural land out of use, potentially for many years, jeopardizing both domestic and international food security. As the Ukrainian government readies a new mine action strategy, it should consider how to address important concerns about the regulation and prioritization of humanitarian mine action.

In the last decades, humanitarian mine action (HMA) and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) processes have increasingly been recognized as essential to paving the way for sustainable development thanks to their contributions towards human security, livelihood, and access to services. The integration between the two processes, however, has not yet been fully addressed in the literature or practice. This paper seeks to identify areas where DDR and HMA intersect and, supported by anecdotal evidence, suggest a conceptual framework for future research and implementation. Most importantly, we hope to widen the debate on the potentially synergic relationship between HMA and DDR, flag possible fallacies or oversimplifications, and challenge solely “top-down” approaches.

In current multidimensional peacekeeping operations, UN civilian staff perform core substantive tasks, from facilitating peace processes to organising elections and from monitoring human rights abuses to reforming the security sector. Moreover, Special Political Missions and Good Offices Engagements are civilian-only peace operations dedicated to conflict prevention, peacemaking, and post-conflict peacebuilding. Still, the training of civilian staff lags behind their military and police counterparts. There are very few available courses and training opportunities, as well as standardized training materials. In this book chapter, we discuss how civilian training can be improved. In particular, we build on Brazil’s recent experiences at Exercise Viking – the largest multidimensional simulated exercise in the world – and suggest that greater integration with existing, often military, training infrastructure may be the way forward.  

Nas atuais operações de manutenção da paz multidimensionais, funcionários civis das Nações Unidas executam tarefas substantivas essenciais, desde a facilitação dos processos de paz até a organização de eleições e desde o monitoramento de abusos dos direitos humanos até a reforma do setor de segurança. Além disso, Missões Políticas Especiais e Compromissos de Bons Ofícios são operações de paz exclusivamente civis dedicadas à prevenção de conflitos, construção da paz e consolidação da paz pós-conflito. Ainda assim, o treinamento de funcionários civis fica atrás de seus equivalentes militares e policiais. Existem muito poucos cursos disponíveis e oportunidades de treinamento, bem como materiais de treinamento padronizados. Neste capítulo do livro, discutimos como o treinamento civil pode ser melhorado. Em particular, aproveitamos as experiências recentes do Brasil no Exercício Viking – o maior exercício simulado multidimensional do mundo – e sugerimos que uma maior integração com a infraestrutura de treinamento existente, muitas vezes militar, pode ser o caminho a seguir.