Hybrid conflict situations in the 21st century require adequate answers to respond comprehensively and effectively towards any developing challenges. With this paradigm in mind, the NATO Centres of Excellence, CIMIC and STRATCOM, jointly conducted the 2017 Community of Interest Conference (COI) from May 17th to 18th, addressing current issues on “Resilience & Collective Defense within a Hybrid Conflict Environment”.

This joined event took place in Riga, Latvia, right within this highly relevant focus region of the North Atlantic Alliance. It provided both Centers of Excellence with a unique audience environment, as well as for a vital position reckoning for both Civil-Military Cooperation and Strategic Communications at one of the fault lines of our time.

In key notes, panels and syndicate workshops with their top-line findings, civilian and military delegates from across NATO explored the applicability of the Comprehensive Approach in a collective defense scenario. Mixed competence groups discussed the prospects for the synchronization of Strategic Communications with Civil-Military Interaction, pursuant to the decisions of NATO’s Warsaw Summit 2016 and the implementation of the Readiness Action Plan (RAP).

The syndicate work has been performed by combined civilian and military expert groups from both competence areas. They focused on perspectives of the Comprehensive Approach within Hybrid Conflicts, the contributions of STRATCOM and CIMIC to the further development resilience, the common roles of both STRATCOM and CIMIC in collective defense scenarios and their respective training, education and exercise requirements in the implementation of the RAP.

Hybrid conflict situations in the 21st century require adequate answers to respond comprehensively and effectively towards any developing challenges. With this paradigm in mind, the NATO Centres of Excellence, CIMIC and STRATCOM, jointly conducted the 2017 Community of Interest Conference (COI) from May 17th to 18th, addressing current issues on “Resilience & Collective Defense within a Hybrid Conflict Environment”.

This joined event took place in Riga, Latvia, right within this highly relevant focus region of the North Atlantic Alliance. It provided both Centers of Excellence with a unique audience environment, as well as for a vital position reckoning for both Civil-Military Cooperation and Strategic Communications at one of the fault lines of our time.