ABSTRACT
The first source of Cimic is based in conventional warfare and can be traced to civil affairs during the mobile phase of the Second World War, as well as US Army civil affairs and NATO Cimic during the Cold War. Herein Cimic is an operational support function, or tactical tool, geared towards military objectives, performed by specific units and specialists and often segregated from the tactical chain of command. The second foundation for Cimic is based in the history of irregular warfare and counter-insurgency principles. Civil-Military cooperation in counter-insurgency operations is a central tenet, every soldier's job' and a process or concept of operations geared towards political objectives rather than a function for specialized units and personnel in support of reaching purely military goals. When NATO staff working on the new' Cimic concept sought a selling point for Cimic in the late 1990s, they invoked the image of Eisenhower lamenting about the civilian obstacles hampering military operations.
