Modern warfare requires soldiers to have completely new kinds of skills.
"It used to be that the soldiers would fight and the Red Cross would take care of the rest", says Mikko Kurko, summarizing the history of civilian-military interaction.
Nowadays soldiers and civilians work together in joint Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) units.
One of the Finnish contributions to the NATO Partnership for Peace programme has been to offer military observer training at the International Centre of the Niinisalo Garrison.
Finnish peacekeepers themselves have worked in CIMIC duties under the UN and NATO flags in a number of places, including Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Finland has experience in peacekeeping and in interaction with civilians in crisis areas dating back to the 1950s. Respect for the skills of the Finns has increased steadily since then.
Currently the Americans have also seen that it takes more than guns and small talk to make cooperation between civilians and soldiers work. Healthy common sense also comes in handy.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 28.8.2005
