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AJP-3.19

AJP-3.19 Allied joint doctrine for civil-military cooperation

NATO commanders and their staff planning and conducting operations, with a secondary reference role for non-military actors interacting with NATO forces

AJP-3.19 sets out NATO's doctrine for civil-military cooperation (CIMIC), giving commanders and staff the principles and processes for working with non-military actors during operations; nations record their agreement to use it in STANAG 2509.

Edition
B
Published
2025-06

What it is

AJP-3.19 is the Allied Joint Doctrine for Civil-Military Cooperation, known throughout by its NATO acronym, CIMIC. It is written for NATO commanders and their staff, and it says so directly: it "provides commanders and their staff with the principles and guidance necessary to plan and conduct civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) in operations and activities throughout all NATO core tasks within the whole continuum of competition." CIMIC itself is defined as a military joint function that understands the civil factors of an operating environment and enables, facilitates and conducts interaction with non-military actors, so that military and non-military activity converge on the same effects rather than working at cross purposes.

This is Edition B, Version 1, promulgated in June 2025, superseding Edition A. It reworks the previous edition rather than lightly updating it: it introduces new definitions of CIMIC and of civil-military interaction (CMI), replaces the older "CIMIC core functions" with "CIMIC core activities," and draws a sharper distinction between CIMIC as a joint function (Chapter 3) and CIMIC as a staff function (Chapter 4) than the previous edition did.

Who it binds, and how

AJP-3.19 does not bind a company. Nations record their agreement to use it in STANAG 2509 - "the agreement of nations to use this publication is recorded in STANAG 2509" - and a nation can ratify with reservations against specific text: this edition's own front matter records Canada's reservation on integrating CIMIC into its Emergency Management Offices, and Italy's reservation disputing the document's use of "military police" and its restriction of police liaison to the provost marshal. The document itself "focuses on the operational level, although it also has utility at the strategic and tactical levels," and it "is intended as guidance for joint NATO staffs; however, it may provide a useful framework for activities and operations conducted by NATO members and partner nations." Its role for anyone outside NATO's command structure is explicitly secondary: "it can help non-military actors to understand and interact with NATO forces and staffs," and "the publication also provides a reference for non-military actors." Nothing in it creates an obligation a supplier is assessed against, and no clause anywhere names a certification, audit or surveillance scheme for it.

The joint function and the staff function

Chapter 3 covers CIMIC as a joint function: two core activities, civil factor integration (CFI) and civil-military interaction (CMI), delivered through dedicated CIMIC capabilities (a theatre element, staff element and liaison detachment at the operational level, plus battalion, company and platoon CIMIC units at the tactical level) and CIMIC's relationship to the other joint functions - manoeuvre, fires, information, command and control, intelligence, sustainment and force protection.

Chapter 4 covers CIMIC as a staff function, run through the J9 branch. It lists specific staff activities: developing "the CIMIC concept of operation (typically Annex W to plans)," running civil factor integration through frameworks such as PMESII/ASCOPE, and conducting civil-military liaison under four stated principles - right level and competence, continuity, mutual exchange of information, and avoidance of duplication. It also describes two distinct assessment products staff produce - the CIMIC estimate, a continuous picture of civil factors for command decisions, and the operations assessment, tracking progress against the mission - and CIMIC's contribution to NATO's lessons-learned process, run by the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC).

Levels of interaction, and where the doctrine is candid about its own limits

The doctrine sets out six levels of interaction with non-military actors, from integration (the highest, operating together toward a unified end state) down through cooperation, coordination, deconfliction and consultation to coexistence (the lowest, where actors are simply aware of each other). It is careful to flag that this vocabulary is not universal: "there is no common agreement on these terms" among non-military actors, who "may use them interchangeably or with different meanings." That caution matters, because it means a reader should not assume a non-military partner uses "cooperation" or "coordination" the way this document does.

How NATO categorises the actors CIMIC deals with

Annex A sorts non-military actors into governments and public administration, governmental organizations, the private sector, international organizations (the UN, EU, AU, OSCE and WTO) and non-governmental organizations. It gives the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement its own section, and is precise about a point often assumed rather than checked: "the ICRC is neither an international organization nor a non-governmental organization," but "a private association under Swiss law which was given an international mandate by the states party to the Geneva Conventions to help victims of armed conflict," bound by "humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence" and favouring "a confidential approach." The document states plainly that "the ICRC action cannot be part of any integrated or comprehensive mechanism," since the ICRC's own principles "exclude close/formal cooperation with military forces," though it "must maintain its independence of decision-making and action while consulting closely with military actors." On humanitarian coordination generally, the document notes that OCHA coordinates many humanitarian actors, but that "several neutral and independent humanitarian organizations (such as ICRC or MSF) will not get coordinated by OCHA (in light of their fundamental principles)" and instead run their own channel of interaction with the military.

On law enforcement, the document states that "police liaison is normally conducted by military police (including gendarmerie type forces) personnel under the direction of the provost marshal" - a line Italy's national reservation specifically disputes, arguing that liaison should not be exclusively a provost-marshal function.

Civilian protection in joint targeting

The final substantive section of the doctrine covers CIMIC's role in joint targeting. CIMIC staff advise on "second and third order effects" of proposed targets and on the principle of proportionality, which the document states "requires refraining from attacks in which the expected loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, and damage to civilian objects incidental to the attack would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage expected to be gained." CIMIC also "supports the development of the no-strike list" by helping identify civilian key infrastructure in the joint operations area.

Getting the document

AJP-3.19 is unclassified ("NON CLASSIFIED") and free of charge, like all NATO standardization documents. NATO's Standardization Document Database lists the current edition; we do not host a copy or sell it.

How we help

AJP-3.19 is a policy and doctrine document written for NATO commanders and staff, not for a company, and it creates no requirement a supplier is assessed against. There is no compliance programme to build around it, and no certification scheme exists for it.

Where this touches a ComplyTrain customer is narrower and more indirect than most standards on this site: an organisation supporting a NATO exercise or operation alongside forces already applying CIMIC doctrine - producing liaison records, coordination logs or CIMIC-related training material as part of that work - can hold that documentation and its associated training records in ComplyTrain the same way it holds evidence against any other contractual requirement. ComplyTrain does not conduct civil-military liaison, write a CIMIC estimate, or decide what CIMIC doctrine applies to a given operation; that stays with the military staff who own it. Which NATO or national requirements actually touch your work is set by the contract and the customer's quality clause, not by us. See what else sits alongside AJP-3.19 in the standards explorer, and talk to us about the documentation trail behind the work your organisation does around it.

Standards it references

Questions

Is AJP-3.19 mandatory for a company?

No. AJP-3.19 addresses NATO commanders and their staff, not companies or suppliers. It binds through STANAG 2509, which nations ratify; a company only encounters it indirectly, through a contract or programme that puts it alongside a NATO force already applying CIMIC doctrine.

Is there a certification for AJP-3.19?

No. The document names no certification body, accreditation scheme or government-surveillance regime. It is doctrine, assessed internally by NATO through processes like the CIMIC estimate, the operations assessment, and the lessons-learned process run by JALLC, not something an external body certifies.

What changed between Edition A and Edition B?

The publication's own summary of changes lists new definitions for CIMIC and civil-military interaction (CMI), the introduction of the term human security, the replacement of "CIMIC core functions" with "CIMIC core activities," and a clearer distinction between CIMIC as a joint function and CIMIC as a staff function.

Does AJP-3.19 mean NATO forces integrate with the Red Cross?

No, and the document is explicit about this. It states that "the ICRC action cannot be part of any integrated or comprehensive mechanism," because the ICRC's own principles exclude close or formal cooperation with military forces. The ICRC instead "consults closely with military actors" while keeping its independence of decision-making and action.

How does AJP-3.19 relate to STANAG 2509?

STANAG 2509 is the agreement NATO nations ratify to use this publication: "the agreement of nations to use this publication is recorded in STANAG 2509." AJP-3.19 is the doctrine that agreement covers, and a nation can ratify it with specific reservations, as several have for this edition.