The civil-military operations in Afghanistan have been continuing for over a decade. The progress has been turbulent. Civil-military cooperation is evolving with the blurring gaining momentum in recent years. The lines between humanitarian and military operations are merging in unrealistic ways under the guise of civil-military cooperation. Civil military operations and humanitarian assistance are crucially different in that civil-military resources are solely targeted to the success of the military mission. Humanitarian aid resources are spent where they are most needed by the population under the principles of H-I-N. (Humanity, Impartiality and Neutrality). Civil-military cooperate operates on the premise that the forces take sides. Yet linkages between purely humanitarian aid and civil-military operations in complex conflicts are overlapping. Military operations are financed from national public funding; whereas humanitarian aid is often donor sponsored although much developmental humanitarian aid is provided by national governments for project oriented goals. There are many NGOs and IGOs in Afghanistan developing the nation with health, education, justice and governance structures, infrastructure and transportation. Kabul and Kandahur are both fairly modern cities with people working in high rise buildings in secure environments.

Citation: Barber E (2011) Military Humanitarianism in Afghanistan. J Def Manag 1:e105

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