Effective joint civil-military action in operational theatres has been shown to have its limits. In order to ensure essential interministerial and international coordination, any improvement must originate from an analysis of arrangements already in place in France or planned elsewhere. Strong political will is needed in order to establish a light, permanent, flexible structure which will be able to develop a common interministerial view which is both coherent and apposite, and which will act as the lead agency for its implementation. This structure will use a methodology of interministerial appreciation of a situation to plan, execute and evaluate operations, based on accepted performance criteria.
Civilians and the Military: Joint Decision-Making and Action in Crises
Recent operations, from former Yugoslavia to Afghanistan and Iraq, have brought their share of experiences and lessons learned in the field of coordination of civil and military action. However, even if many analyses have been produced by administrations or independent experts, no proposal has resulted in any major progress in organisation or procedures in France. The growing number and complexity of crises should be encouraging us to start some constructive thinking on this subject, starting from the improvements in hand and the need to take into account other countries’ experiences.
Limits of the Use of Force Alone
Western powers are today confronted with the dual challenge of, firstly, the number and duration of situations requiring military intervention and, secondly, limited resources in terms of available armed forces.
It is difficult to resolve a crisis rapidly: a conflict only ends when the contradictions that caused it have been resolved by an adjustment of the expectations of all involved. Armed forces are often confined to a role which is secondary to political and economic action. What is more, the use of force alone has clear limits because, being an instrument of constraint, it can hamper the process of bringing together the minimum number of individuals needed for the restoration (or indeed the setting up) of a functioning constitutional state.
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