Civil-military Coordination in the Common Security and ... - ETC Graz

Civil-military Coordination in the Common Security and Defence Policy of the European Union
A Introduction
In the European Security Strategy 1 (ESS) and its Implementation Report, 2 the
member states (MS) of the European Union (EU) have publicly agreed that today’s
security threats are not purely military. They also consented that today’s threats
cannot be tackled by purely military means. 3 Rather, each response to a crisis or
conflict, they argue, requires a mixture of instruments. Experience has indeed shown
that the traditional sequence of military intervention followed by a civilian presence
for reconstruction is not applicable anymore and that integrated concepts, which
utilize all tools available already from the beginning are needed. 4 Such integrated
approaches are in line with contemporary security concepts, like human security,
which draw attention to the broadened scope of security threats and emphasize the
need for more comprehensive approaches to tackle these threats. 5
The EU is often considered to be in a particularly good position to offer the right
mix of instruments required for comprehensive crisis management. Javier Solana
even believes that the comprehensive approach underpinning the Common Security
and Defence Policy (CSDP) is its value added. 6 Yet, what progress has the EU made
thus far to coordinate its civilian and military tools for crisis management? Civilmilitary
Coordination (CMCO) is usually regarded as a demanding undertaking that
entails numerous steps and contentious issues. A successful implementation of
CMCO would, for instance, require a joint planning, a common doctrine and joint
training, joint early warning, joint situation assessment and fact-finding, coordinated
* Mag. iur. Markus Möstl is research fellow and doctoral student at the Institute of
International Law and International Relations of the University of Graz, Austria. You may
contact the author at: markus.moestl@uni-graz.at. The author would like to thank Sven
Biscop for his valuable comments on an earlier draft of this paper which was presented at
the 4th Graz Workshop on the Future of Security.
1 Council of the European Union, A secure Europe in a better world – the European
Security Strategy, approved by the European Council held in Brussels on 12 December
2003 and drafted under the responsibilities of the EU High Representative Javier Solana.
2 Council of the European Union, Report on the implementation of the European Security
Strategy – Providing security in a changing world, approved by the European Council
held in Brussels on 11 and 12 December 2008 and drafted under the responsibilities of
the EU High Representative Javier Solana.
3 The threats were identified as the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional
conflicts, state failure, but also include terrorism, organized crime, and the effects of
climate change.
4 Margriet Drent/Dick Zandee, Breaking pillars. Towards a civil-military security approach
for the European Union, Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’,
2010, 2.
5 See, e.g., Commission on Human Security, Human Security Now, New York, 2003, 133;
or Human Security Unit, Human Security in theory and practice, Application of the Human
Security Concept and the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security, United Nations,
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 6.
6 Javier Solana, Remarks at the conference ESDP@10: What lessons for the future,
EUISS, Brussels, 28 July 2009.
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