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Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence

ASIA PACIFIC CIVIL-MILITARY CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE STRATEGIC PLAN 2009–2011

Who We AreThe Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence (the ‘Centre’) is an Australian Government initiative to improve Australia’s effectiveness in multi-agency civil-military engagement for conflict and disaster management overseas. The Centre was officially opened by the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd, on 27 November 2008.

The Centre supports government departments and agencies and engages with non-government organisations (NGOs) and international partners, including the United Nations, on civil-military issues to achieve focused outcomes for the region and globally. We support best practice approaches to civil-military engagement by those involved in the strategic planning and delivery of conflict and disaster management activities.

The Centre is staffed by officials of relevant Australian Government departments and agencies and from the New Zealand Government, as well as an NGO Engagement Coordinator from the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), Australia’s peak NGO body for aid and development overseas. The Centre is managed by the Defence Organisation. The Executive Director reports directly to the Secretary of the Department of Defence and the Chief of the Defence Force, and the Centre is administratively supported through the Office of the Vice Chief of the Defence Force. Portfolio responsibility resides with the Minister for Defence, through the Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Support.

The Centre’s mandate and performance are to be reviewed by the Australian Government in FY 2010–2011.

Purpose of the Strategic PlanThe Strategic Plan provides the rationale for, and scopes, the Centre’s work priorities and is reviewed annually. The Centre’s more detailed annual business planning and performance frameworks are reviewed and updated on a quarterly basis to ensure programs continue to meet the highest priorities, and make efficient use of Centre and partner resources.

Our MissionThe Centre supports the development of national civil-military capabilities to prevent, prepare for, and respond more effectively to, conflicts and disasters overseas.

Our Responsibilities and PrioritiesThe Centre assists relevant departments and agencies by:

I. contributing to the development of a conceptual framework for civil-military collaboration in conflict and disaster management overseas;

II. carrying out research, capturing lessons learned, developing doctrine and facilitating training programs that contribute directly to the ability of the Australian Government to develop an effective civil-military capacity for conflict prevention and disaster management overseas;

III. working with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and other agencies to develop cooperative relationships with key Australian and international organisations (including relevant UN agencies, international peacekeeping centres, tertiary institutions, NGOs and the commercial sector) so as to further best practice on civil-military issues;

IV. advising agencies on civil-military matters relating to:

a. the development of integrated capabilities to achieve a coherent, whole-of-government strategy for peace and stabilisation operations;

b. the transition between the military and civilian phases of operations; and

c. in the longer term, developing civil-military training to improve regional capacity for conflict and disaster management.

Our VisionThe Centre is a global leader in promoting best practice in civil, military and police engagement in conflict and disaster management. Following the Centre’s review in FY2010–2011, specific medium term goals will be developed.

Our ValuesAs we conduct our business we promote innovation, flexibility, professional excellence and collaboration. We are focused on outcomes designed to enhance understanding of civil-military engagement and improve our management of disasters and conflicts overseas.

Our Strategic EnvironmentAttention to civil-military engagement has increased in recent years in light of the lessons learned from disasters and conflicts around the world. Australia has joined the United States, United Kingdom, United Nations, and a number of other bilateral, regional and international partners, in taking proactive steps to harness and coordinate civil-military capabilities for stronger outcomes in conflict and disaster prevention, mitigation, and response. This work is imperative for countries and organisations operating within bilateral, multilateral and multinational arrangements in increasingly complex environments that demand cohesive and well coordinated strategic and operational approaches.

The strengthening of Australia’s security framework to ensure that Australia is well placed to respond to complex and interconnected operating environments is at the core of the Prime Minister’s National Security Statement of 4 December 2008. The Statement highlights the need for Australia to ensure an integrated approach to security, based on a clear-sighted view of long term national security interests. The Centre’s work contributes to the Government’s objective for an international environment that is stable, peaceful and prosperous, and a rules-based order that enhances Australia’s national interests. The Centre will be responsive to revisions of the National Security Statement and future White Papers and policy documents.

The Centre promotes coherence across Australia’s security, diplomatic and development communities, and assists in the building and linking of their respective capabilities. In doing so, we address the finding of the 2008 Review of Homeland and Border Security which highlighted the need for better coordination between national security departments, agencies and capabilities. Such coordination requires arrangements that optimise mechanisms for strategic planning and that ensure agencies benefit from each other’s skills, experience and capabilities.

The Centre adds value to the work of Australian and New Zealand Government departments and agencies, and interacts with the NGO sector, in conflict and disaster management overseas. We promote enhanced whole-of-government and whole-of-nation approaches to disaster management, humanitarian assistance, stabilisation and reconstruction, governance and rule of law assistance, and conflict prevention. The Centre has a global remit, with particular focus on the Asia Pacific region.

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In line with the Australian Government’s ‘Three Pillars’ foreign policy, the Centre’s work supports our alliance with the United States, strengthens our regional engagement in the Asia Pacific, and reinforces our multilateral relationships, particularly with the United Nations. Through dialogue and civil-military programs involving ASEAN, the Pacific Island Forum, the African Union, the European Union and a range of bilateral partners, the Centre contributes to advancing Australia’s key diplomatic and security relationships.

Our Strategic ObjectivesThe Centre:

• demonstrates best practice in civil-military-police training, education, doctrine, research and implementation;

• promotes comprehensive and sustainable positive outcomes for those affected by conflict and disaster; and

• strengthens national, regional and international engagement in civil-military affairs.

Our StakeholdersThe Centre’s primary stakeholders are those Australian Government departments and agencies involved in strategic-level planning and operations for disaster and conflict management overseas. These include the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (in particular, the Office of the National Security Adviser), the Defence Organisation (Defence), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), the Attorney-General’s Department (AGD) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) (principally the International Deployment Group and the Forensic and Data Centres).

As well as the relationship with Australian departments and agencies, the Centre has a close relationship with the New Zealand Government through the secondment of a senior official to the Centre, currently as Deputy Director. This arrangement promotes an understanding of the New Zealand perspective which, in time, could be applied across the whole range of Centre activities.

We contribute to the Australian Government’s vision of a coherent national response to conflict and disaster through activities that promote collaboration between civilian and military personnel. We promote an Australian Defence Force (ADF) that is responsive across a range of conflict and disaster situations. We work with the ADF Joint Warfare Doctrine and Training Centre and the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law in helping to achieve this aim. We support efforts to strengthen the inter-operability of Defence and the AFP for overseas missions, and the AFP’s capacity to support security sector reforms in the region in concert with Defence, DFAT, AusAID and AGD.

The Centre has strong links with the relevant areas within Defence, DFAT, AusAID, AFP and AGD to ensure coherence in our regional and international engagement across the spectrum of disaster and conflict prevention and mitigation, crisis response and long term state building.

The Centre also promotes a stakeholder relationship with the NGO international aid and development sector which, in time, may allow a more comprehensive understanding of, and approach to, disaster and conflict management.

Our PartnersTo advance best practice in Australia’s civil-military expertise, the Centre maintains a number of strategic partnerships with domestic, bilateral, regional and international organisations.

DomesticThe Centre harnesses the experience of those organisations in Australia’s non-government sector involved in disaster and conflict management overseas. Through our engagement with ACFID and its member NGOs, the Australian commercial sector, and universities and research institutes, we support and benefit from the broad range of national capabilities that assist civil-military efforts overseas.

BilateralThe Centre contributes to advancing a number of Australia’s strategic bilateral partnerships. By forging ties with relevant US and UK Government agencies, such as the US Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance in Honolulu and the UK Stabilisation Unit in London, we seek to share relevant research and facilitate joint training programs. We support defence and civilian engagements with Australia’s bilateral partners in the Asia Pacific region and ensure our education and training, research, and doctrine development programs provide opportunities for input from these partners and support skills development for civil-military effectiveness in the region. The Centre will seek to extend these partnerships to sister institutions in regional countries seeking a mutually beneficial relationship.

Regional and InternationalWe participate in relevant initiatives under the ASEAN-Australia Comprehensive Partnership, and those agreed between the Pacific Islands Forum and Australia. The Centre supports Australia’s commitment to enhancing diplomatic and security ties with Africa through a program of work with the African Union. Working closely with Australia’s Permanent Missions to the United Nations (New York and Geneva), the Centre engages closely with relevant UN bodies – principally the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, the Department of Field Support, the Department of Political Affairs, the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Peacebuilding Commission, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), and UN humanitarian programmes and agencies working in the civil-military space – to help strengthen UN doctrine, training and research, and to support the exchange and development of civil-military experience and guidance. We value and encourage the involvement of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the Centre’s activities. International research and training institutions with expertise on civil-military issues, such as the United States Institute of Peace, the Henry L. Stimson Center, Wilton Park and the Folke Bernadotte Academy, are important partners for the Centre.

Our ApproachThe Centre adopts a flexible and innovative approach to the achievement of our mission and strategic objectives. With staff drawn from different agencies and backgrounds, our Centre is a practical example of the interagency collaboration we promote.

We remain responsive to current and emerging Australian Government foreign and security policy priorities. We provide practical advice, and facilitate research, training and education, and doctrine development, on civil-military issues of key interest to relevant agencies.

We are outcome-focused and aim to increase civil-military effectiveness through:

• collaborative learning – gathering experts from different disciplinary backgrounds and traditions and fusing current practice with future trends and issues;

• challenging thought – solving problems by marshalling facts and ideas and developing challenging tasks to common problems;

• recognising multiple perspectives – approaching activities in a way that acknowledges different agency needs and cultures and does not seek a one-size-fits-all solution;

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• promoting cooperation and teamwork – supporting a multi-agency approach that harnesses agency attributes and builds agreement by acknowledging all voices; and

• embracing community responsibility – participating and being responsible within the global community through dialogue, deliberation and consensus building.

Our ResourcesThe Centre values people and ideas. We are committed to bridging organisational cultures and building international teams to achieve more effective whole-of-government and whole-of-nation outcomes. Our team of 20 staff is a mix of civilian, police and military personnel (including reservists), drawn from Defence, AFP, AusAID, DFAT, AGD, ACFID and the New Zealand Government. The team is supplemented, as necessary, by project-specific experts, contractors, researchers and trainers.

The Centre’s budget is provided primarily by Defence and supplemented by other departments/agencies and the New Zealand Government to cover relevant personnel costs. This funding arrangement enables the delivery of high quality, demand-driven programs. The Centre’s funds, in the main, are directed towards action research and training on civil-military issues. The Centre applies sound business practice to the management of its resources and complies with the Australian Government’s financial and procurement procedures.

Our Business ModelThe Centre’s business model is designed to ensure that tasks, resources and outcomes are matched and managed through a system of priority setting. The model is represented in the diagram below:

Determining civil-military

priorities of work

Engaging and collaborating with

stakeholders

Conducting research and

recommending implementation of

lessons learned

Facilitating education and

training

Improving doctrine

Informing policy

Contributing to effective civil-military outcomes

We optimise our resources to archive the greatest impact at the civil-military

interface

We strengthen partnerships with relevant national and international

organisations

We partner with experts to conduct

research and recommend lessons

for continous improvement

We mentor and advise, as well

as design and deliver civil-military

education and training

We advise and assist on the

development of civil-military doctrine

We use our expertise to inform the development of policies to enhance

civil-military collaboration

We measure our effectiveness by the outcomes of

civil-military collaboration

We confirm needs and priorites We deliver outcomes

Our Key Deliverables In accordance with our responsibilities and priorities (described earlier), the Centre delivers relevant and practical programs in the civil-military components of four key areas:

• conflict management and prevention;

• disaster management and mitigation;

• governance and the rule of law; and

• humanitarian assistance and reconstruction.

Multiagency

Training, Education & Doctrine

Research & Lessons Learned

Conflict Management & Prevention

Governance & Rule of Law

Humanitarian, Recovery & Disaster Management

Civil-Military Best Practice

Within these areas the Centre has a number of programs, each of which has a range of projects associated with it. Management is done at both the program and project level. Although the programs will remain relatively constant over time, projects will begin and end according to the Centre’s needs and the needs of our stakeholders.

We produce the results of our activity in these areas through:

• research and publication of concepts, lessons learned and doctrine; and

• training and education related to conflict and disaster management.

The Centre will continue to undertake and commission action research on cutting-edge civil-military issues, so that the lessons from Australian and international experience are well documented, disseminated and can be applied in future civil-military planning and operational processes. Our research findings will help inform the content of our education and training programs to ensure we are developing and delivering contemporary training.

Based on the Centre’s initial Communications Strategy and Implementaion Plan, we will use a variety of communication and outreach mechanisms to disseminate our work as widely as possible, including through the Centre’s website, forums and training events.

Our PerformanceThe Centre is committed to delivering a work program that responds to the priority needs of our key stakeholders and which benefits from, and assists, our partners. Each program of work undertaken by the Centre will have specific outcomes and tools to measure the achievements. These will be developed and articulated through the Centre’s business and performance assessment processes.

Our business management processes are subject to regular reviews within Defence to ensure accountability and efficiency in the use of our resources.

The Centre’s progress will be reviewed by the Australian Government in FY2010–2011, after which the Strategic Plan will be revised.

The Centre welcomes regular feedback on our Strategic Plan and our work from our stakeholders and partners to ensure that we continuously provide highly valued products and services.

Michael G Smith Executive Director Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence

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