In early March, the Department of Defense published a “humanitarians 101″ handbook. The work is a primer for the military on how to interact with humanitarians and other NGOs, especially in the field. Last week at the World Bank’s Innovation Fair, I had the opportunity to have some beers with Laura Hudson of FrontlineSMS on humanitarian-military relations in the UK’s Ministry of Defense. Laura knows her stuff, and pointed out that the MoD’s Development, Concepts, and Doctrine Centre (DCDC) had previously published their own guide to NGOs, titled Sharing The Space:
Sharing the Space aims to be a back-pocket guide for personnel operating alongside civilian organisations, providing advice on the likely roles, motivations and methods of NGOs. Greater understanding of their civilian counterparts in theatre should lead to an appropriate dialogue between the military and aid organisations.
You can download a PDF of Sharing The Space here.
Christopher R. Albon is a political science Ph.D. specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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