Page 24 - Coespu Magazine 2018-2

The pivotal role of Anthropology in UN-CIMIC activities

In nowadays conflict
situations, it is quite hard
to manage and coordinate
all the social actors
involved in every single
Operational Theater.
Firstly, the International
Community, formed both
by civilians and military
operators, should take into
consideration the local
authorities; secondly, it
must coordinate its effors
with a huge number of other individuals, NGOs, INGOs, GOs, associations and agencies.
Starting from the definition of UN Integrated Peacekeeping mission as “an instrument with which
the UN seeks to help countries in the transition from war to lasting peace, or to address a similarly
complex situation that requires a system-wide UN response, through subsuming actors and
1
approaches within an overall political-strategic crisis management framework” .
It is no mistery, we can say it is quite obvious that every CIMIC activity implies, as a key
requirement, two basic components, consensus and coordination. There is no chance for
development, reconstruction and security without the consensus of the local,regional key leaders,
the other stakeholders and the civil
society. Consensus also means an active
and proactive participation of the local
social actors to the transition and
stabilization processes. But to achieve
this goal, it becomes fundamental to
partially change our cognitive map or
“Weltanshauung” (which is our “vision
of the world”) in order to interact and
2
co-work . To adopt this new approach –
negotiated with all the stakeholders
involved in the Operational Theater,
anthropology is absolutely useful not only for the cultural awareness of the area but also to create
links, analyze local social networks and find interlocutors at institutional, operational and societal
levels.

1
Mersmann M. 2011. “Civil-Military Cooperation in Humanitarian Assistance: Integrated Missions as a
“Best Practice” in UN Response”, Humanitarian Assistance in Complex Emergencies, University of Denver.
2
Conference held by the Author at the JFC HQ in Brunssum, March, 2012, entitled “"The anthropological
approach to the operations".

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