Civil-Military Cooperation in Peace Support Operations and Disaster Relief: A Case from the Japan Self-Defense Forces’ Disaster Relief Mission

Abstract

Because the nature of civil-military cooperation in the Peace Support Operation (PSO) and in the disaster relief contexts differs from each other, the studies of civil-military cooperation have developed in each domain based on the presumption that these contexts hardly intersect. This article, however, points out that the two contexts sometimes do mingle and that the philosophy, strategy, policy, and other bases on which the military practices civil-military cooperation in disaster relief contain those from the PSO domain. A case from the Japan Self-Defense Forces’ experience in its disaster relief mission in the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan illustrates such “mixture” in the civil-military cooperation contexts. The article attempts to provide some explanations as to why such mixture sometimes occurs.