Don’t Call it CMOC
Don’t Call it CMOC
by Colonel Gary Anderson
Download the full article: Don’t Call it CMOC
As the disaster assistance and humanitarian relief operation in Haiti matures, there will need to be a coordination center where the U.S. military, non- governmental organizations (NGOs), international relief organizations (IOs), and Haitian governmental ministries can prioritize aid and organize the operation. Whatever we call this coordination center, we should not call it a Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMOC).
CMOCs were formed during complex humanitarian emergencies such as the post-Desert Storm Kurdistan emergency, Somalia, and the Rwanda genocide. They began as ad hoc responses to situations where no host nation government existed to manage humanitarian aid. They usually had an American military officer in charge and they filled a needed coordination function.
Eventually, they found their way into U.S. joint doctrine. In doing so, they morphed from a function that needed to be done into a doctrinal organization replete with a table of organization that is totally inappropriate for a situation like Haiti. Haiti is a simple humanitarian disaster. It has a functioning, if badly damaged, government which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised to support in her visit last week. An American led CMOC structure would undermine that objective in the eyes of the Haitian people and the world.
Download the full article: Don’t Call it CMOC
Gary Anderson is a retired Marine Corps Colonel who was the J-3 (Operations Officer) for OPERATION SEA ANGEL in Bangladesh and a Military Advisor to the US Mission in the UN-led OPERATION CONTINUE HOPE in Somalia.
