Taking the comprehensive approach beyond the Afghanistan experience. Lessons learned from Exercise Common Effort

In mid-2010, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in particular the Peacebuilding and Stabilization Unit (PSU; or, in its Dutch form, EFV) and the Directorate on Security Policy (DVB) embarked on an innovative and collaborative project with the 1st German Netherlands Corps (1GNC) and the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs focusing on what is often called the 'integrated approach'. The name of this project, Common Effort, refers to a concept of training and working that is geared towards improving cooperation between military and civilian partners in a peacekeeping, peace support or crisis management context. The importance of this exercise and its underpinning concept is clear, given the fact that the practice of crisis management increasingly involves large numbers of diverse civilian and military actors working side by side. Common Effort ended with a 4 day exercise that provided numerous important lessons for improved future cooperation, not least because the exercise succeeded in bringing together a wide range of civilian and military actors in a real mission context. These lessons are reflected in this short summary document of the main findings of the review of Common Effort.