Interagency Contact and Training for a Comprehensive Approach to Operations: Assessment of the Formation Operations Center of Excellence 'Civil-Military Seminar'

Abstract

Interagency training involving both civilian and military actors has been suggested as one important way to mitigate some of the challenges that can hinder the success of Comprehensive Approach (CA) missions. However, such training is complex to plan and execute and expensive in terms of money and time investments by participating agencies. Thus, systematic evaluation efforts are required to determine the effectiveness and areas of improvement in such training and education opportunities. The current research evaluated the effectiveness of the inaugural Civil - Military Seminar, conducted by the Formation Operations Centre of Excellence at the Canadian Army Command and Staff College in Kingston, Ontario. This seminar was designed to bring together military personnel and civilian representatives from various Canadian government departments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) who are most likely to be called on to work together in a CA context. Results were quite positive: Civilian and military participants found the seminar to be very useful in raising awareness and providing important information concerning organizational mandates and felt that it facilitated networking. Results also indicated that, as a result of the seminar, participants believed that they had changed their impressions of the other groups and that the seminar would affect the way that they interacted with members of the other groups on future operations. Overall, despite the challenges inherent in such training, the data suggest that players in the CA sphere, both military and civilian, should consider this training as important preparation for comprehensive missions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA581843

Entities

People

  • Angela R. Febbraro
  • Megan M. Thompson
  • Tara Holton

Organizations

  • Defence Research and Development Canada

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civilian Personnel
  • Classification
  • Disasters
  • Education
  • Educational Psychology
  • Governments
  • International Organizations
  • Knowledge Management
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Personnel
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Perception
  • Psychological Phenomena And Processes
  • Security
  • Teamwork
  • Training

Readers

  • Economics
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • STEM Education