Cadet Denise Blackmon completed a Center for the Study of Civil-Military Operations sponsored Academic Individual Advanced Development (AIAD) with the Washington DC based Protect the People (PTP). PTP is an international, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with a mission to empower people affected by crisis. Their vision is safety, dignity, and well-being for humanity. This vision encompasses the basic elements of protection and the core aspects of PTP’s programming.
She was assigned to two separate projects at PTP that involved studying protection of civilians. The first project was to edit a draft of a textbook titled Protection of Civilians: Military Reference Guide and the Army Techniques Publication ATP 3-07.6 on civilian protection to make recommendations to improve the guidebook. Her second project was to read NATO’s Science for Peace and Security Program guidelines for applying for workshop grants in preparation to review an application for an Advanced Research Workshop to create awareness of Protection of Civilians (PoC) and to provide specific recommendations on how PoC and Women, Peace and Security (WPS) can be mutually reinforcing as critical human and social aspects of security which impact NATO’s strategic objectives.
“During my AIAD”, she commented, “I learned that there is more to soldiering than what I originally thought. There are several steps, plans, missions, and more that exist within a primary goal. More importantly, I learned that to produce positive results within a foreign society, one needs to be aware of civilian protection policies and enforce those policies. A society that does not feel safe or secure will not have trust in organizations or militaries that are supposedly there to protect them."