MILITARY-CIVIL COOPERATION AND NATIONAL RESILIENCE: THE NATO EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The article examines the experience of military-civilian cooperation through the concept of sustainability, which was introduced in NATO member countries. Civilian preparedness is a central pillar of stability and a critical factor in the collective defense of Alliance members. An analysis of scientific research in recent years was made on the selected topic of the article and the main documents of the Alliance, which emphasizes the importance of stability, which is achieved through military-civilian cooperation. It is emphasized that the modern security environment is unpredictable and characterized by the emergence of new challenges and threats that may come from state and non-state actors from terrorist attacks, cyber attacks and hybrid warfare from pandemics. All this can blur the boundaries between conventional and non-conventional forms of threats, and therefore it is also necessary to counter them collectively, in cooperation between the military and the civilian part of society. Seven basic requirements for national stability have been characterized, by which NATO member states can measure their level of readiness: guaranteed continuity of government work and critical public services; sustainable energy supply; the ability to effectively deal with the uncontrolled movement of people and to deconflict these movements from the deployment of NATO military forces; sustainable food and water resources; the ability to deal with mass casualties and devastating health crises; sustainable civil communication systems; sustainable transport systems. It is concluded that for NATO member countries, the readiness of the civilian population to resist an aggressor is no less a strategic task than the cooperation of its member countries with allies or the combat capability of their armies. In Ukraine, the issues of military-civilian cooperation also come to the fore, especially in the current conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war, these issues are already present in the state's strategic documents in the field of security and defense. These documents are designed to establish effective coordination of actions between the Armed Forces and the civilian population at the national and local levels.