Joint Civil-Military Interaction (JCMI) is a comprehensive and seamless integration of civil society, military, governmental, and academic experts in human security, education, civil-military cooperation, and crisis management to prepare wide-ranging expertise advising policy-makers and peacebuilding practitioners regarding civil-military integration in the shortest possible time avoiding competition to build societal resilience and sustainability.

The purpose of the Joint Civil-Military Interaction (JCMI) Global Research and Education Network is to bring civil society organizations, governmental agencies, military practitioners, and conflict analysis and resolution scholars together to investigate issues impacting civil-military interaction in peacebuilding and humanitarian actions and to provide professional and informed guidance to military, civil society, academia, and governments regarding civil-military interaction before, during, and after violent conflict as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster response crises.

Military interaction with civilian peacebuilding groups enhances Human Security and the protection of vulnerable people, cultures, religions, and societies. The JCMI Network focuses on the study and development of civil society and the establishment of good governance structures in conflict-affected areas around the world, which are essential for building functional bridges between dysfunctional civil and military partners increasing overall joint mission success in establishing long-term peace and stability.

JCMI is based on communication, planning, and coordination among international, national, and local non-military actors and military leaders before, during, and post-crisis to facilitate the mutual effectiveness and efficiency of each.

The Joint Civil-Military Interaction (JCMI) Group was established as an experiment in 2013 to seek new ways of more effectively dealing with challenges of conflict prevention and resolution as well as resilience pre and post crisis. Contact is maintained with NATO accredited Centers of Excellence, the broader CMI community, as well as individual organizations; NGOs, INGOs, IOs, universities, etc. The JCMI Network researches and educates civil and military organizations and actors regarding unity-of-aim in peacebuilding and humanitarian operations.

The primary mission of the JCMI Center is to create a better understanding of the new and vital need for Civil-Military Interaction (CMI), and Civil-Military Co-operation (CIMIC), which should all be coordinated at the core of planning and operations for all civil and military missions. Effective CMI is critical for building functional bridges between Civil & Military partners; as well as enhancing overall mission success for civilian and military participants; mainly in the critical areas of Protection of Civilians, Reduction of Civilian Casualties, Cultural Property Protection, Religion, Civil/Homeland Security, Critical Infrastructure Protection, Risk Reduction, Disaster Management & Humanitarian Assistance; as well as Joint Medical Stability Operations.

Additionally, the JCMI Network can provide support to Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO), International Organizations (IO), and NATO Accredited CIMIC Centers of Excellence (CCOE) with the knowledge of CMI in their combined roles to successfully guide the implementation of CMI interchangeably; as well to advance the “Policy of Global Programming for Education and Training (E&T)” within NATO and affiliated organizations engaged in humanitarian operations.

The goals of the JCMI Network are:

• Establish and strengthen partnerships among CMI actors,
• Build international collaboration researching CMI,
• Inform and educate policymakers regarding CMI, and
• Promote public policy initiatives that advance CMI within peacebuilding and humanitarian response communities. The network achieves its goals by way of an ongoing lecture series, workshops, and a monograph and white paper series.

JCMI maintains strong connections with academia. These connections allow access to university students and future leadership in peace operations and civil-military interaction. Faculty research and teaching collaborations are ongoing, and JCMI is unique in its civilian education focus on advancing humanitarian and military interoperability. JCMI creates a theory-to-practice and practice-to-theory dynamic that advances a unified CMI approach to peace operations and humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations.

The network is successful in connecting with international military representatives regrading JCMI topics such as Good Governance, Rule-of-Law, and Protection of Civilians.

JCMI has a history of successful outreach and education events. Since 2013, JCMI has conducted symposia, conferences, and seminars at civilian academic institutions that centered on building collaborative relationships among military, civil society, government, and academia regarding CIMIC and CMI. University graduate and undergraduate CMI classes and certificate programs have also been conducted.