Using the military in disaster relief: systemising challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a greater understanding of the challenges of civil military logistical cooperation, coordination and collaboration in humanitarian relief logistics. Design/methodology/approach – Systematic literature review of academic journals. Findings – This paper has four main findings. First, a categorisation of humanitarian logistics literature is achieved through a systematic review. Second, a classification of military involvement in humanitarian relief logistics is presented. Third, the research substantiated systematic differences in the kinds of military cooperation not only due to stage of operations but also depending upon whether the disaster is “natural” or “manmade”. Fourth, the research identifies the challenges of civil military logistical cooperation, coordination and collaboration and posits recommendations to overcome the identified challenges. Research limitations/implications – This paper represents an exploratory study and provides the basis for further research on cooperation, coordination and collaboration between military and civilian agencies in humanitarian operations. The paper sets a research agenda for academics. Practical implications – This paper is the first to offer practical guidance to military commanders and managers of humanitarian agencies on solutions and recommendations to overcome the challenges to civil military logistical cooperation/coordination in humanitarian operations. Originality/value – The area of civil military logistical cooperation/coordination has received limited consideration within the humanitarian aid logistics literature to date. This paper is designed to redress this shortfall. As a result, it is hoped that it will act as a catalyst for further research and to widen and deepen the resultant debate with a view to improving the outcome for those affected by current and future disasters.

A coordenação civil-militar na logística humanitária e o papel das forças armadas brasileiras no gerenciamento de desastres

“…Muitas soluções são perdidas e acabam sendo reinventadas. Neste contexto, é preciso que seja criado um ambiente de aprendizagem contínua, analisando-se as melhores práticas e aproveitando-se desta experiência para o planejamento conjunto de operações futuras (HEASLIP e BARBER, 2014). Neste sentido, a Tabela 5 sintetiza as principais recomendações para maior eficiência da ação de militares em operações de resposta a desastres e logística humanitária encontradas na literatura.…”

“…A participação militar em operações humanitárias, tanto em casos de conflito armado ou em resposta a desastres naturais, não é um fenômeno novo. As forças militares nacionais e internacionais têm desempenhado um papel importante na prestação de apoio (APTE, 2009;HEASLIP et al, 2010e HEASLIP et al, 2012.Os militares possuem capacidades únicas que podem ser aplicadas em operações humanitárias (PUGH, 1998), além da estrutura de comando e controle, fundamental em caso de situações caóticas -como guerras e desastres (APTE, 2009). A atuação dos atores militares na ação humanitária tem uma longa história, como ilustrado pela Crise da Abissínia (1935Abissínia ( -1936 e o transporte aéreo de Berlim (1948).…”

Self-Sufficient Healthcare Logistics Systems and Responsiveness: Ten Cases of Foreign Field Hospitals Deployed to Disaster Relief Supply Chains

“…Within these categories, prior research indicates that the military has historically cooperated horizontally with relief agencies -that is, with other organizations at the same level within the disaster relief supply chain -by coordinating airlifts, sharing storage facilities, providing logistics assets, providing information on infrastructure and security, and setting up communications networks (Balcik et al, 2010). Correspondingly, the literature identifies the key military missions as establishing a secure environment and aiding relief organizations, a mission that is fulfilled by providing assets and capabilities and creating conditions to permit the return of the disaster area to normality (Barber, 2012;Cross, 2014;Heaslip & Barber, 2014;Rietjens, Voordijk, & Boer, 2007).…”

“…While there are many types of disasters (Day, Melnyk, Larson, Davis, & Whybark, 2012;Wassenhove, 2006) and response phases (Heaslip & Barber, 2014;Heaslip, Sharif, & Althonayan, 2012;Kovács & Spens, 2007), our primary focus is on sudden-onset disasters in general. The case data shows that a FFH achieves responsiveness by hav-ing an organizational structure that confers it the required flexibility to fit the general characteristics of the aftermath of sudden-impact disasters.…”

Emergency preparedness planning in developed countries: the Swedish case

“…Because an emergency often involves interaction between several actors (McEntire and Fuller, 2002), it is crucial that the same planning should reflect preparation for several types of potential threats (Perry and Lindell, 2007;Kreps, 1991). A topic of concern in the all-hazard approach is mutual respect in civil-military coordination (Heaslip and Barber, 2013). Such coordination requires mixing different concepts, e.g., humanitarian principles (Tomasini and Van Wassenhove, 2009;Kovács and Spens, 2009), civil defense based on military doctrines involving the entire society (Byman et al, 2000), and commercial processes rapidly adapting to emergency planning (Kovács and Spens, 2007;FEMA, 2011;Van Wassenhove and Martinez, 2012).…”