GLOSSARY

CIMIC: what civil-military cooperation means

CIMIC stands for civil-military cooperation. In current NATO doctrine it is a military joint function that brings an understanding of the civil side of an operating environment into military decisions, and enables and conducts the interaction between armed forces and civil actors: authorities, emergency services, the population and organisations.

Last checked 2026-10-23

CIMIC in NATO doctrine

NATO sets out CIMIC in Allied Joint Publication AJP-3.19, Allied Joint Doctrine for Civil-Military Cooperation. Edition B, promulgated in June 2025, defines CIMIC as a military joint function, so it is a responsibility of the whole command and not only of its specialist CIMIC staff branch (J9). It names two core activities:

Civil factor integration: identifying, analysing and assessing the civil factors of the operating environment, such as infrastructure, population and authorities, so they inform decisions.
Civil-military interaction: activities between NATO military bodies and non-military actors to build mutual understanding and make crisis management more effective.

Soldiers at a flood in England

A river overtops a flood bank and the Strategic Coordinating Group asks for military aid. Once the request is approved, a Royal Engineers troop arrives with trucks and boats. Fire and rescue lead the rescues, the district council runs rest centres and a charity brings food. The military liaison officer joins the coordinating group, agrees which roads the trucks will use and passes back a list of tasks the soldiers can take on. Most of the friction in such operations comes from small things: different map grids, different symbols, radios that cannot talk to each other, and no shared list of who is where.

Inside the UK, this kind of support is governed by the military aid to the civil authorities (MACA) policy in Joint Doctrine Publication 02, which sets its own criteria and approval route. The coordination problems on the ground are much the same as in CIMIC.

Our guide to NATO resilience requirements explains why civil preparedness and civil-military planning are now a national priority across the Alliance.

Civil-military work in Sinkaos

APP-6 next to civilian symbols

Place, filter and export units, equipment and tactical graphics with APP-6 military symbols alongside Sinkaos’ civilian symbols.

Cursor on Target with TAK

Two-way exchange of positions, markers and incidents with ATAK, WinTAK, iTAK and TAK servers, so each side sees the other.

MGRS and open formats

MGRS coordinates and KML, GeoJSON, GPX, CAP and WMS/WMTS for data that crosses the line.

Guests with limits

Liaison officers and partners get time-limited, scope-limited access that ends on its own.

CIMIC, humanitarian coordination and classified data

Is CIMIC the same as civil-military coordination in humanitarian work?

They overlap but are not identical. UN and humanitarian organisations use the term civil-military coordination (often UN-CMCoord) for their side of the dialogue, with their own principles on independence.

Can Sinkaos handle classified information?

No. Sinkaos is meant for unclassified civil and civil-military work. It holds no NATO certification or accreditation.

Where can I read more on how civilian teams work with the military?

Our page on civil-military cooperation shows how a joint operation runs in Sinkaos.