《境外军事和民防资产使用指导方针》最初是在挪威的奥斯陆，经历了1992年至2005年期间一系列会议制定的。来自45个国家和25个组织的180多名代表参与会议制定这一不具约束力的指导方针。从印度尼西亚地震和海啸境外军事援助中吸取的经验教训，促使联合国人道主义事务协调办公室和挪威外交部召开了一系列会议，对该指导方针进行不断更新，最终版本于2007年11月发布。

《境外军事和民防资产使用指导方针》解决了制定相关原则和标准的需求，以更高效地协调军事和民防资产资源对和平时期的自然灾害、技术和环境紧急事件做出响应。

只有在没有同等的民防解决方法可选时，以及仅用军事或民事国防资产无法满足重大人道主义事件援助需求时，才可请求调用军事和民防资产。其特殊性在于对军事和民防资产的使用一定是作为最后手段。这些力量和资源必须对现有的应急资产进行补充。军事和民防资源只在申请国际援助的总体背景下，应受灾国家的请求进行部署。联合国人道主义机构提倡不要依赖军事和民防资源，该指导方针也鼓励成员国加大内部投资，提升自身能力。《境外军事和民防资产使用指导方针》强调遵守包括尊重国家主权在内的人道主义原则。

The Guidelines on the Use of Foreign Military and Civil Defence Assets were originally developed in Oslo, Norway, through a series of meetings between 1992 and 2005. More than 180 delegates from 45 countries and 25 organizations participated in the meeting to develop the non-binding guidelines.Lessons learned from the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami led to a series of meetings between the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to update the guidelines, the final version of which was released in November 2007.

The Guidelines on the Use of Foreign Military and Civil Defence Assets address the need to develop principles and standards for more efficient coordination of military and civil defence assets resources to respond to natural disasters, technological and environmental emergencies in peacetime.

The use of military and civil defence assets may be requested only when there is no equivalent civil defence solution available and when the need for assistance in a major humanitarian incident cannot be met by military or civil defence assets alone. Its specificity lies in the fact that the use of military and civil defence assets must be a last resort. These forces and resources must complement existing emergency assets. Military and civil defence assets are deployed only at the request of the affected State in the overall context of a request for international assistance.UN humanitarian agencies advocate not relying on military and civil defence assets, and the guidelines encourage member States to invest more internally to improve their own capabilities. The Guidelines on the Use of Foreign Military and Civil Defence Assets emphasize compliance with humanitarian principles, including respect for national sovereignty.