Experience from NATO operations, including Afghanistan, has demonstrated that coordination with a wide spectrum of actors from the international community, both military and civilian, is essential to achieving key objectives of lasting stability and security.

The Declaration on Alliance Security, issued in April 2009, underlines the importance of strengthening our cooperation with other international actors, including the UN, the EU, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the African Union, in order to improve our ability to meet new challenges and improve our delivery of stabilisation and reconstruction efforts.  NATO therefore needs to ensure that it cooperates with a range of partners, including non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local actors, in the planning and conduct of operations.

At the Strasbourg-Kehl Summit in April, NATO Heads of State and Government agreed that “as part of the International Community’s efforts, we reaffirm our commitment to enhancing NATO’s intrinsic contribution to a civil-military approach”.

On 6 July, the UK, US, Netherlands, Canada and Denmark co-hosted a seminar at NATO on the ‘Comprehensive Approach at Work in Afghanistan’.  Speakers and participants focused on lessons learned from Afghanistan and highlighted a number of proposals for building civil-military planning capabilities from the ground up.

The need to promote a Comprehensive Approach applies not only to operations but more broadly to many of NATO’s efforts to deal with 21st century security challenges, such as fighting terrorism, improving energy security, preventing proliferation of weapons and dangerous materials, protecting against cyber attacks, and confronting the threat of piracy.  NATO’s contribution to a Comprehensive Approach will be a key feature in the new Strategic Concept.