Abstract:

In the last decades, the contemporary security environment has undergone many changes and we are witnessing the emergence and manifestation of new types of threats to state security and even international security. Identifying the quick and appropriate responses to these new types of threats is not the prerogative of military security specialists only. This is one of the reasons that the concept of interagency has gained major importance and we are discussing today about cooperation and coordination between military commanders, on the one hand, and representatives of civilian organizations, on the other hand. From a military perspective, this cooperation and coordination is carried out by the civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) structures, especially qualified and trained so as to work shoulder by shoulder with civil society specialists in different fields of activity, the so-called subject matter experts. Within the CIMIC structures there are officers specialized in different fields, called functional specialists who, throughout their military career, gain extensive experience in functional fields and at some point may leave the military system. By undertaking a further process of training and using their previous experience, they may eventually become subject matter experts in different fields involved in providing timely and adequate responses to crisis and conflicts. The main aim of this article is to analyze the approaches to education and training of specialists working in specialized CIMIC structures in order to identify the possibility that they can become, still during active duty, a real pool for what we call future stabilization and reconstruction subject matter experts, able to act as POLAD / political advisor, CIVAD / civilian advisor, LEGAL / legal advisor, CULAD / cultural advisor, and so on. The methodology used included heuristic methods of research and we applied in the first part the documentary research and content analysis regarding the manner in which these specialists are „formed” and trained with a view to their further employment. Applying the comparative analysis regarding the education and training process of CIMIC specialists, in the second part we identified possible “areas” that can be improved so that in the future we can include them in the mentioned category of experts on security, stabilization, transitions and reconstruction. The results of our research consists in a series of proposals that can be considered so that an important human resource already specialized in specific fields could be further used. Moreover, we have identified certain curricular patterns and modern methods that can be implemented in the process of education and training of these possible future subject matter experts taking into account their field of expertise, as well as the lessons identified from participating in certain national and international exercises. Our application of heuristic research methods has resulted in the actual identification of those innovative elements that can be implemented in CIMIC officers’ education and training so as to streamline the activity of subject matter experts and achieve maximum effects with lower resource consumption.

Keywords:

Stabilisation and reconstruction, POLAD, CIVAD, LEGAD, CULAD.