UNSSC and the Italian Army enhance civil-military cooperation

The UN’s work in the field is a complex network of actors working in synergy. On top of institutional challenges and siloed approaches, cultural diversities and language barriers, civilian and uniformed UN personnel have to grasp the reality of engaging with counterparts who do not share the same mindset and jargon.

The world’s constantly changing security landscape requires the United Nations (UN) and its personnel to be able to interact with an ever-growing multitude of actors. The United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC), as the UN’s learning and training organization, is at the forefront of the challenge of providing personnel with the tools and skills necessary to perform their duties in the field safely and securely.

It is under this banner that in 2007 UNSSC and UNDSS began their collaboration to provide UN staff deployed to volatile and dangerous regions across the globe with essential and comprehensive safety and security skills: the Safe and Secure Approaches in Field Environments (SSAFE) training programme.

The programme consists of theoretical and practical aspects that the UNSSC and UNDSS deliver in Turin, Italy as well as in the field.  A fundamental part of the SSAFE training is the simulation, where UN personnel experience realistic “hostile” role-play situations.

In Turin, the simulation is run with the solid support of the Italian army, specifically the Brigata Alpina Taurinense. Participants benefit from the skills and knowledge of the soldiers, who have been deployed as peacekeepers in various countries around the world. The experience of the Italian armed forces in peacekeeping missions and their constant presence in crisis scenarios allows UNSSC and UNDSS to flexibly address a changing set of issues during training day and bring forward arising challenges from the field environment.

The collaboration between UNSSC and the Italian Army does not stop here.  UNSSC provides the Italian Army with subject-matter experts for the delivery of courses for the Italian armed forces and other military officials.

In particular, UNSSC experts are lecturers on the UN Peacekeeping perspective within the Stabilization and Reconstruction Management course at the Post Conflict Operations Study Centre of the Italian Army, as well as the ITA Army Staff College Course conducted by the Comando per la Formazione e Scuola di Applicazione of Turin and led by the Comando per la Formazione, Specializzazione e Dottrina dell’Esercito of Rome.

In the context of this course, a continuous collaboration has been developed over the years in teaching military officials the basics of UN Civil-Military Cooperation (UN-CIMIC and UN-CMCoord) and exposing and sensitizing them to the civilian environment and the humanitarian perspective in a land-based full-spectrum military operation.

In the most recent training, which took place from January until the end of April, after a face-to-face lecture delivered by Alessandro Pirisi, UNSSC Programme Officer, the Staff College continued its involvement in the course through a role-playing exercise. 112 Italian Army Captains and 18 junior students from Turin University attending the "laurea magistrale" in strategic science, who augmented with their civilian background the Brigade command post, were asked to plan a military operation within a mock scenario at the Scuola di Applicazione in Turin. UNSSC played the role of the humanitarian personnel in the field by engaging in mock meetings with military counterparts, planning the movements of various actors in the scenario together with the simulation management officials. The Staff College provided insights and feedback on how the military participants could improve their communications skills with civilian counterparts.

Finally, participants were asked to execute their plan by a simulation at the Italian Army Centro di Simulazione e Validazione in Civitavecchia, which is close to Rome. Over the course of two weeks, a UNSSC expert took part in both cohorts of the three-day live simulation, role playing the movements and actions of the humanitarian actors on the ground as well as providing guidance to the training team to make the civilian environment as realistic as possible, while the military participants were executing the operation from the Tactical Operations Centre and organizing the work of the Brigade throughout the operation.

From the military perspective, the support of highly qualified personnel of the Staff College is an invaluable contribution for the attendants are part of the Italian Army. The simulation is extremely realistic and comprehensive in terms of the planning and conduct of a land military operation which must include the perspectives of the various non-military actors involved and the need to protect the population.

The 16-year partnership between the Italian Army and UNSSC remains a testament to the staff College’s endeavour to strengthen mutual understanding between civilian and military environments, with the aim of improving our ability to carry out peacekeeping missions