Perhaps the defining moment in recent NGO/military relationships was Operation PROVIDE COMFORT in northern Iraq in 1991. I think even the most hardened critics of civil/military cooperation (CIMIC) would agree that a great deal of good was done and many lessons learned. It’s a shame they were not remembered in the frequent man-made and natural disasters of the following decade; Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo to name but three, saw the CIMIC relationship as exercises in re-inventing the wheel. To misquote Santayana, "History repeats itself. It has to because nobody listens."

More recently, conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Tsunami and the Pakistan Earthquake have seen ever-increasing cooperation between INGOs (UN etc), NGOs and the military. With each experience the relationship has improved and the results too. But it has been a fraught and imperfect gestation.