Civil-military cooperation in the management of infectious disease outbreaks: a scoping review

Civil-military cooperation (CMC) in infectious disease outbreak responses has become more common, and has its own cooperation dynamics. These collaborations fit WHO's call for multisectoral cooperation in managing health emergencies according to the emergency management cycle (EMC). However, the literature on CMC on this topic is fragmented. The core aim of this review is to understand the breadth and dynamics of this cooperation by using the EMC as a framework and by identifying challenges and opportunities in the management of outbreaks.

A scoping review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews guideline was conducted. A systematic search for peer-reviewed journals was performed in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Scopus. Eligible papers addressed substantive contributions to the understanding of CMC. Papers were categorised by EMC phase and relevant information on study characteristics and areas of cooperation were extracted from the data. Recurring themes on challenges and opportunities in cooperation were identified by means of qualitative interpretation analysis.

The search resulted in 8360 papers; 54 were included for analysis. Most papers provided a review of activities or expert opinions. CMC was described in all EMC phases, with the fewest references in the recovery phase (n=1). In total, eight areas of CMC were explored. Regarding the better understanding of cooperative dynamics, the qualitative analysis of the papers yielded five recurring themes covering challenges and opportunities in CMC: managing relations, framework conditions, integrating collective activities, governance and civil-military differences.

Guided by these five themes, successful CMC requires sustainable relations, binding agreements, transparency, a clear operational perspective and acknowledgement of organisational cultural differences. Early and continuous engagement proves crucial to avoid distrust and tension among stakeholders, frequently caused by differences in strategical goals. Original research on this topic is limited.