Mercy Corps’ Director of Public Affairs Dr. Heather Hanson discussed how the U.S. Armed Forces and Mercy Corps should work together while sharing the same space, however, both should acknowledge the remarkably different security strategies.
“Humanitarian organizations are mission driven and our goals may not directly relate to U.S. national security interests. We don’t always share the same goals as the military in the space we occupy together. When we are seen as a force multiplier or employed by the military, we are seen as part of a counter-insurgency strategy that can make our goals hard to maintain. In many of the hostile environments we work in, we rely on community leaders to negotiate often on an individual basis. We don’t have an armed security component.”
Hanson stressed that each agency and branch of the government has different goals to accomplish. By combining all of those together, there may be a loss of certain aspects of what one hopes to accomplish.
[...] Mercy Corps and military should be integrated, yet respect differences [...]