MASTERING THE HUMAN ASPECTS IN OPERATION. Medical Contribution

Transcription

1 MASTERING THE HUMAN ASPECTS IN OPERATION Medical Contribution NATO Operations Medical Conference (Bethesda MD 3-6 October 2011) follow on Food For Thought Paper INTRODUCTION The NATO Operations Medical Conference hosted by ACT at the newly-opened National Intrepid Centre of Excellence (NICoE) in Bethesda USA on 3-6 October 2011 was conducted on the theme Medical & Human Approach to Operations. As Security Environment that cannot be developed without Human security is now a main line of the new NATO Strategic Concept, mastering the human aspects in operation is a key to success. The medical community has chosen this subject to capture the latest thinking on healthcare in relation both to NATO s personnel and the achievement of its operational mission. Human aspects of security underlie the whole spectrum of operations, from conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction and development. NATO s medical capability offers unique opportunities for how the Alliance can influence human security and especially the very different challenges presented by peace enforcement compared to reconstruction or to conflict prevention. AIM Mastering the human aspects in operation is a response (1) to new missions as prevention, stabilization, reconstruction and disaster relief operations, (2) to new political objectives as managing public opinion, building partnerships and harnessing regional & local resources, (3) to new social reality in the globalization age. For that, NATO needs to focus on human perceptions, human behaviour, human capabilities and limitations to figure out the resultant impact on mission effectiveness. Recognize that the human in an integral part of the total systems that must perform effectively and efficiently to achieve mission goals is now essential. The NATO medical community is a good entry in this process as it gives priority to human aspects, and as it has naturel proximity with people. This food for thought paper provides a tentative general approach for mastering human aspects and focus specifically on medical contribution to this concept. REQUIREMENT NATO will be required to effectively operate in increasingly complex situations within both Article 5 and operations other than war. The complexity arises from the number and diversity of actors in the operational environment and the heterogeneous composition of the NATO

2 force itself. The implication of coalitions, non-kinetic, unanticipated effects on local populations in the operational environment will continue to unfold and involve in ways not presently understood. A good way to face these new challenges is to be capable of understanding, adapting to and influencing the cultural, social and medical dimensions of human behaviour to enable effective alignment of the kinetic and non-kinetic effects of operations. EXPECTED OUTPUTS Lectures and discussions during NOMC tempted to identify the benefits of a more human centered approach to operations and to determine how to better achieve the mission and to improve human security by addressing human needs. It will help the Alliance to find new ways to manage crisis by seeking to prevent, to understand mechanisms and to stabilize post-conflict situations. Therefore the objective of this paper is to formalize an approach to an issue that is becoming increasingly important for operations. Assessing existing tools and mid-term requirements and achieving to summarize human oriented factors will help NATO prepare for the future and provide a coherent process for adapting the planning process. It will enable operational commanders to manage the major complexity driver of future operations: the human. DEFINITIONS (These definitions are not official, they are only proposals based on the results of discussions) Human Security: Human security is the perception of how secure someone feels, not solely related to the absence of violence or the threat of its use but also the feeling to have easily access to essential needs as food, water, health, well-being and environment. Human Approach: Consideration of human nature in terms of sociology, biology, physiology and psychology to figure out human behaviour, abilities, limits and reactions. Human Approach to operations: using consideration of human nature to anticipate operational consequences and impacts, and to improve effectiveness of crisis management. HUMAN APPROACH TO OPERATIONS Human approach to operations must take in account of the diversity which exists amongst the different cultures comprising the Alliance. Since human nature is diverse and often dependent of circumstances it is difficult to find an absolutely invariant model but a systematic analysis of two ranges of options (Axis of influence and Target areas) can be helpful to conduct operations.

3 Human centered Model A capability shortfall has been identified as NATO is unable to efficiently understand and influence the Human aspects of crisis management. There is a lack of understanding and influencing activities and capabilities with human requirements, a lack of attention to human aspects within military education, training, strategic and operational processes and capability development. The objective of this Human centered model is to develop a systematic consideration for human aspects, a better understanding of this complex issue and a modification of the mindset considering a more human centered approach to operations is a real benefit. Axis of influence: Three axis of influence can be identified on which we need to work for improving effectiveness. Human framework: the Human framework represents the background where human move about. Two main pillars compose it: the ecosystem and the social environment. - The ecosystem is made by the Natural Environment and the Built Environment. The natural environment consists of ecological & natural resources and physical phenomena. A good knowledge is important to figure out for instance Health risks, water & food supply, climate, natural hazardous. The built environment consists of areas and components strongly influenced by human. Urban combat for instance is important to consider as it has an important operational impact. As examples Industries, pollution, CBRN risks are of major interest in the planning process. - The social environment represents population s culture, habits, interaction with ecosystem, religion, language. Human behavior: Human behavior is the range of behavior exhibited by humans and which are influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics. Human performance: The human performance is an important component of the overall performance advantage of one military force with respect to another. It is related of increasing physical and mental performance of combatant by medical, dietary, training, education, ergonomic or technological methods. Target areas: four target areas are of interest to operations Force: represents military personnel Population: represents civilian people through which the force is moving about. Enemy: any person who is actively opposed or hostile to the force. Other stakeholders: members of nonmilitary governmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations or private companies.

4 Therefore, a human centered view of crisis management necessitates crossing all these aspects to identify coordination and performance issues and propose solutions. This is a multidisciplinary issue that can only be addressed only with multi-directional efforts. Subject matter experts coming from medical, human factors, culture & language, gender, science, techniques are all essential to drive this human centered model. Planning Process All findings resulting from the analysis produced by the human centered model need to be included in exercises and in the operational planning process. The objective is to consider human aspects early as possible in the planning process as they could have an impact on the center of gravity or lines of operations. The NDPP needs to be permeated also by human approach initiatives at all steps of the cycle as this is the tool to determine capability requirements needed to meet the objectives stated in Political Guidance and to identify priority shortfall areas. Concretely its objective is to provide a framework within which national and Alliance defence planning activities can be harmonized to meet agreed targets in the most effective way. It should facilitate the timely identification, development and delivery of the necessary range of military and non-military capabilities to ensure efficient NATO understand and influence of human aspects. Multidisciplinary actions necessary Short term to Medium term: - Determine indicators / criteria of success of human aspects integration - Psychologist advisor required? - Assess existing capabilities and improvements required - Capability gap analysis

5 - Create a multidisciplinary network / framework - Use technology to support human approach - Develop education & training programs Long term: - Modeling human behavior / simulation / computers based training - Prospective tools development (social evolution, globalization impact, new challenges ) - Improving human performance and protection face to new weapons and threats - Removing language and cultural barriers - Developing mental preparation CONCLUSION Mastering the human aspects for ultimately improving operational effectiveness is now a necessity for NATO as it is more and more often recognized that human perceptions, behaviour, capacities, limitations, and framework have an important impact on crisis management. However, as this is a complex area involving multidisciplinary experts, where medical has an important role to play, it is necessary to coordinate and understand the interrelations between all disciplines. A change of mind-set is also essential to improve the level of attention to human aspects issues through the military at all levels of the chain of command but also at the policy makers level. The effort to develop this approach is evolving rapidly but this will be a long term effort also. Prepared by: Col Valerie Denux- ACT Medical Branch / Valerie.Denux@act.nato.int / (1)