Key Points

• Chaplains have traditionally served as professional clergy persons conducting divine services and providing religious education; officers managing the Command Religious Program, facilitating free exercise of religion for all, providing pastoral care, and advising on religious, ethical, and moral issues; leaders for the command in areas of faith and moral values, professional ethics, personal growth, and adjustment; and subject matter experts providing input on issues affecting morale, values, ethics, suicide, and trauma/stress. Chaplain Corps history from all the services also demonstrates that while the chaplain's role has been clearly defined, there has been a consistent tradition of going outside these defined boundaries.
• With the U. S. military's increased involvement in peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance operations, chaplains are now more likely to engage with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), private voluntary organizations (PVOs), and international organizations (IOs). While such involvement will never become the primary role of the military chaplain, possessing the skills to do what the situation at the time requires will prepare and allow chaplains to contribute significantly to the success of the mission beyond their traditional roles. U. S. Navy policy and doctrine should more thoroughly account for these changes. Chaplains' engagement with NGOs--particularly humanitarian organizations present during the initial phases of an intervention--depends upon policy and doctrine, the mission commander, and the level of the military organization at which a chaplain works.
• Chaplains should be mindful that cultural differences exist in the military-civilian relationship in areas such as decision making, accountability, flexibility, aims and expectations, time perspective, and trust. Further, as a member of the U. S. military, nothing the chaplain endeavors to do will ever be perceived as disconnected from certain political considerations. Both chaplains and NGOs are political beings responsible for the consequences of their actions at all levels.
• Chaplains can significantly enhance their effectiveness with NGOs if they are at the appropriate location as the operation unfolds. Participation in Civil-Military Operations Centers (CMOCs), Humanitarian Assistance Survey Teams (HASTs), and Joint Task Force (JTF) Assessment Teams to assist in coordination of NGO-military activities is recommended in JTF doctrine and policy. Later in the operation, Civil Affairs teams may also benefit from chaplain involvement. Chaplains' status as "members of the clergy"or "endorsed religious leaders"provides them with credentials no one else will have. It also gives them access to certain leaders, populations, and locations. The chaplain, as a neutral and noncombatant, may attempt to create or strengthen meaningful relationships with leaders of political factions that will contribute to reducing the conflict and building a foundation for peace.
• By virtue of their vocation and training, chaplains possess qualities that potentially make them valuable participants in the military-NGO partnership during a peace or humanitarian relief operation. Both chaplains and NGO personnel possess invaluable training in humanitarian issues, and both have the desire to bring an end to suffering and disease in people's lives. NGO personnel may give chaplains some degree of trust simply because of their religious authority--and if given, this trust should be conserved and deepened. The chaplain can advance NGO agendas, clarify the NGO point of view when advising the commander, or explain to NGO personnel the perspective and concerns of military leaders. Although a member of the military, the chaplain is the person who has the greatest affinity with NGO players and a natural choice as a working partner and command representative.
• Significant obstacles continue to hamper chaplains in the NGO-military relationship. U. S. Navy policy and doctrine should be updated to allow chaplains to become involved in areas outside the strictly "religious. "This could also bring about synchronization at the policy and doctrine level between the Navy, Marine Corps, and Joint Task Force--and jump-start subsequent practical training appropriate to both service and multi-service environments. Research projects might help to determine what role a chaplain could play in the civil-military and humanitarian assistance operations centers and teams present in an intervention, and at what point in the intervention a chaplain should be called upon to be an active participant.

About the Author

Paul F. McLaughlin is a captain in the U. S. Navy Chaplain Corps and is currently staff chaplain for the United States Southern Command in Miami, Florida. In 1998-2001, he served as the chief religious and moral adviser to the commanding officer of the U. S. Naval Station in Rota, Spain, and as pastor to the Navy community there. McLaughlin's eighteen-year Navy career has included tours of duty in Italy, Japan, the Philippines, and the United States, as well as aboard Naval surface ships. He served as a NATO chaplain in Bosnia for six months in 1998. In the course of his career, McLaughlin has earned numerous awards, including the Defense Meritorious Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1971 and has served parishes in Connecticut and Florida. He holds a Ph.D. in special education from the University of Connecticut. Chaplain McLaughlin was the U. S. Navy fellow at the U. S. Institute of Peace in 2001-2002.