Military players and humanitarians are not natural bedfellows. But Stanislava Mladenova, the author of “When Rambo Meets the Red Cross: Civil-Military Engagement in Fragile States,” says they can be.
She argues that civil-military engagement, especially in fragile and conflict-affected states, is an underappreciated necessity because both sides are working toward the same ends: stability and peace.
As a NATO political adviser in Afghanistan, she saw the risks of a siloed approach firsthand.