- Forum Paper: “Towards a Comprehensive Approach: Strategic and Operational Challenges”, edited by Christopher M. Schnaubelt.
One of the major impediments to implementing a comprehensive approach is lack of a common understanding between civilian and military practitioners regarding the development of strategy.
This Forum Paper looks at a selection of specific cases that illuminate some of the challenges to integrating civilian and military strategy and presents a wide range of ideas regarding the elements of strategy, its purpose, and how it should be developed. There is no single “best” way to address the complex security problems that NATO faces in the contemporary operational environment. Instead, developing a mutual understanding that recognizes where approaches overlap and where actors simply need to “agree to disagree” is the route most likely to produce practical improvements in the assimilation of civilian and military efforts. Appreciating the range of views and methods is the first step towards achieving a workable synthesis of them.
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