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Comprehensive Crisis Management (CCM): Preventing, Preparing, and Responding (former Stability, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction (SSTR) Course ) 1. Purpose: The CCM course exists to educate and socialize regional security practitioners into a “Community of Expertise” that values collaborative regional efforts at comprehensive crisis management and is equipped with the knowledge and tools needed to support those efforts. Additionally, the course seeks to build regional security capability thru the development of individual leader skills in critical thinking, communication and collaboration which can be applied not only to CCM situations but to any collaborative effort. The course is based on the broad notion that regional security is significantly enhanced by collaborative efforts at preventing, preparing for or responding to any crisis—natural or man-made—that threatens stability within nations within the context of national sovereignty. By helping others help themselves, the entire region benefits. 2. Description: This course is a comprehensive examination of current thinking about how to deal with both man-made and natural crises. Crises are comprehensive in nature; they involve, in interdependent ways, all elements of security (political, social, economic, military, etc.) and multiple, interactive players (domestic, international and non-governmental). The degree to which we can build resilience into our societies will greatly influence the long-term impact of any crisis. While crises are often thought of as time-bound, having a beginning and an end, in fact, they have deep roots in the past and long shadows into the future. A major skill involved in crisis management is the smooth interplay between routine activities (normally focused on building a better, more efficient society) and the extraordinary requirements of life saving and damage mitigation throughout the life-cycle of a crisis situation. Accordingly, course content focuses on three broad topical areas: (1) crisis assessments and condition-setting, (2) transitions across the prevent-prepare-respond cycle and (3) during- and post-crisis reconstruction. In addition to this conceptual framework, the CCM course also addresses CCM-task coalition building and operations, inter-agency coordination, stability trends analysis, preventative activities as well as international interventions, post-emergency reconstruction, transition shaping, and strategic communications. The course curriculum is generally divided into three major blocks: (1) Framing the Problem and Tools, (2) How to Think About Crisis-Related Nation-Building and, (3) Making Collaborative Crisis Response Work. Course learning objectives are achieved by preface topical lectures, followed by “learning by doing” small-group activities. Seminars are activity-based. The course includes three learning objective reinforcing exercises:
All course attendees attain membership in an expanded network of contacts among security practitioners that includes their fellow class-mates and APCSS faculty as well as the APCSS alumni network and a regional CCM “community of expertise” via a dedicated web portal. |