Thursday 2 December 2010
- Research Paper 63 - Built on shaky ground: the Comprehensive Approach in practice, by Philipp Rotmann
One of the catchwords in current NATO debates is the famous "Comprehensive Approach", which describes the need to combine military and non-military efforts in order to achieve success in crisis management operation or in nation-building efforts. Although this is not a revolutionary insight per se, the Comprehensive Approach seems often to be portrayed as a silver bullet to cope with NATO's difficulties in Afghanistan. However, careful analysis shows that the coordination of civil and military action - as consequential as it might seem - proves to be extremely difficult on the ground, be it in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
Thus, the Comprehensive Approach - albeit necessary - is still built on shaky ground.
The new Research Paper from the NATO Defense College in Rome addresses this issue and makes concrete proposals on how to overcome existing hurdles.
More Research Division Publications...
