Project Leads

Adam Levine
Director, Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, Brown University

Alexandria Nylen
Civil-Military Program Coordinator, Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, Brown University

Project Description

This project conducts a comparative examination of civil-military-police responses during COVID-19 in Australia, United States and New Zealand. The project contributes evidence to a field where relationships, roles and responsibilities, and leadership structures have historically formed through necessity rather than through an institutionalised approach. Exploratory case studies of Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. will be used to map civil-military-police responses to COVID-19. A mixed method research strategy is used to collect data via surveys and key informant interviews spanning strategic, operational and tactical levels of civil-military-police interaction.

This will be achieved through the following objectives:

• Cataloguing military capabilities employed for use during a pandemic response
• Mapping national decision-making thresholds for the employment of militaries during a pandemic, including in health response and military domestic assistance to civilian authorities or equivalent
• Examining interoperability of civilian, police and military systems, practices and processes, with a focus on heath, logistics, equipment and leadership