It has been my experience that Mil controllers will deal in absolutes where as civil controllers deal more in common sense. This does not mean that mil controllers have no common sense or civil controllers don't know the rules. Mil controllers have been taught, sometimes by bitter experience, that absolutes will not bite you on the arse. This may appear on the surface that they are unable to think outside the box and in certain people, this is quite true. However, the annual ritual of public humiliation, known more commonly as the ATCEB visit, does not encourage freethinking, but absolutely insists in compliance with the letter of the regulations that are published. Looser interpretations of, what is and has always been, are not encouraged.
Equally, it has been my experience that civil controllers try and transfer certain aspects of controlling inside CAS to controlling outside, this is only to be expected but it does cause differences concerning the interpretation of RAS which leads on to requirements for co-ordination etc.
The differences all revolve around conflicting VFR traffic, as far as mil is concerned RAS states that "separation is to be provided between participating traffic and the bearing distance and if know level of conflicting traffic will be passed along with advisory avoiding action to resolve the confliction" this is the same definition as civil work to; however, to the mil this means separation is to be provided on all ac; irrespective of the flight rules or type of service that the conflicting ac may be under, by its act of requesting a service from anyone it is PARTICIPATING. If co-ordination cannot be agreed, then avoiding action is to be given.
Civil on the other hand try and incorporate the rules that govern Class D airspace and take the PARTICIPATING to mean those ac that have elected to fly IFR as they are participating in the Radar Advisory Service, if an ac is unknown then they will provide advice to avoid but if an ac is known and operating VFR they will not, because in their eyes it is neither PARTICIPATING or UNKNOWN but should comply with the rules of the air and avoid other ac.
Whilst I will probably be slated by many, it has been my experience that this difference of interpretation lies at the heart of our problems and will hopefully be fixed with the ongoing review of ATSOCAS.