Civil-military operations or CMO are activities of a military force to minimize civil interference on and maximize civil support for

military operation A military operation is the coordinated military actions of a state, or a non-state actor, in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations may ...

s. CMO is conducted in conjunction with combat operations during wartime and becomes a central part of a military campaign in counter-insurgencies. Some militaries have specialized units dedicated to conduct CMO, such as civil affairs forces or form task forces specifically for this purposes, such as a

joint civil-military operations task force A joint civil-military operations task force, or JCMOTF, is a task organized military unit with the functional purpose of conducting civil-military operations Civil-military operations or CMO are activities of a military force to minimize civil int ...

in the U.S. Military. Also, some militaries have staff sections dedicated to planning and coordinating CMO for their command. CMO is often called civil-military co-operation or CIMIC in

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

operations and civil-military co-ordination in UN operations.

Official definitions

The

Canadian Military } The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; french: Forces armées canadiennes, ''FAC'') are the unified military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air elements referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and Royal Canadian Air Force ...

defines CMO as: The

U.S. Military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

defines CMO as:

Notes

{{reflist Civil affairs Military science Military operations by type