Exercise VIKING 11, carried out in April 2011 was the 6th in a series of major joint civil-military-police exercises organised by Sweden and co-chaired by the Folke Bernadotte Academy and the Swedish Armed Forces. A principal objective of the exercise is to provide the opportunity to acquire hands-on practical skills and knowledge of civil-military-police coordination and cooperation before deployment in multifunctional and multinational UN mandated Peace Operations. The ambition is improved civil-military-police relations within the different crisis management functions in Peace Operations.
The VIKING concept is a so-called “Command Component Exercise”, i.e. only middle and senior management is trained in the exercise which in actuality is a series of telephone calls, e-mails, video-conferences and role-played meetings as well as joint planning sessions. Furthermore, the VIKING exercises are “distributed,” which means that the involved participants are geographically separated to several different locations and connected through the internet.
The VIKING exercise offers a unique opportunity for a wide range of professional disciplines to meet in an exercise environment. It provides a flexible platform allowing civilian and police organisations to interact with the military and with each other, under simulated but realistic conditions. The training facilitates a much improved understanding of the diverse professional cultures, institutional mandates, policies, operational procedures, strengths and limitations of the many contributors to today’s peace operations.
During VIKING 11 almost 2600 civilian, military and police staff participated, making it one of the larger Civil-Military Relations exercises in the world. The exercise was held in six countries simultaneously with participants from the United Nations, a wide range of NGOs and agencies, armed forces from about 25 countries and civilians and police from various countries and organisations. Amongst others the Academy’s sister organisations in Germany; ZIF Center for International Peace Operations, Finland; Crisis Management Centre Finland and Australia; Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence participated and supported the planning and execution of the exercise.
As a government agency the Folke Bernadotte Academy was mandated by the Swedish government to coordinate and support the civilian dimension of the exercise and was a full partner in the development, conduct and evaluation of the exercise. FBA engaged and facilitated the participation of civilian organisations and agencies, regional as well as international and governmental as well as non-governmental in the planning and conduct of the exercise, co-ordinated and facilitated civilian participation at Swedish and non-Swedish sites, lead the civilian evaluation of the exercise and played a major role in the development of the scenario and gaming for the exercise
For more information about the VIKING 11 exercise, see the articles from the exercise in the menu to the left or read the Final Exercise Report found in the menu to the right.