Collaboration in a Comprehensive Approach to Operations: Effective Collaboration in Joint, Multinational, Multiagency Teams and Staffs

Today’s stability and peacebuilding operations are more likely to be successful if they address all aspects of the multi-faceted problem, include all concerned actors and parties of society, and recognize that effective cooperation is at the heart of mission success. NATO Human Factors and Medicine Panel organised a workshop (HFM-204 RWS) to address the many challenges that are identified in achieving adequate levels of cooperation with the diversity of the parties within the Comprehensive Approach. Fifty-two defence scientists, academics, as well as military, governmental and non-governmental representatives with recent operational experiences participated in the workshop. Compared with earlier analyses of peace support operations, it was concluded that what was new and perhaps controversial in 2000 is today taken for granted. Yet, despite the experiences in missions and an accumulating body of research, the cooperation of the armed forces with other organisations – be it Police, NGOs, or Governmental Organisations – still encounters numerous challenges in practice. Characteristic is the high diversity of conceptualisations and perceptions of what the Comprehensive Approach is and what cooperation implicates, resulting in misunderstandings and reduced effectiveness. The report concludes that research is not yet able to provide evidence-based solution approaches that hold in practice. More focus should be given to systematic data collection, and efforts should be made to apply available theories to arrive at conceptual frameworks that can be used for the development of solution approaches for effective cooperation. Likewise, follow-up activities should be initiated in a collaborative effort between researchers and operational leaders in order to encourage solid data collection and develop theories to drive solutions with direct applicability for the field.