Further Development of the Efficiency of Civil-Military Cooperation in Crisis Prevention and Conflict Management

Commissioned research for the Directorate of Security Policy of the Federal Ministry for National Defence

Academic assistance: Peter Fritz, Christoph Benedikter

Utilising academic methods, solution proposals for international conflicts in the sense of applied policy advice should be addressed and presented.

The issues at hand: how can the measures of international conflict management and crisis prevention be evaluated with particular consideration of social science and economic methods? Which recommendations for measures for increasing efficiency above all in civil-military cooperation within the area of conflict management and crisis prevention emerge as a result? Which costs are created by crisis prevention and conflict management and by civil-military cooperation? Which positive cost effects is a timely conflict management or prevention able to achieve in contrast with belated action?

On the basis of analysis of previous interventions and cooperation in cases of crisis, concrete proposals should be examined for taking action for various international actors as well as their chances of success as actors in crisis prevention and conflict management both in general and in concrete current and future scenarios. Examples of this are the UN, the EU, NATO, the USA etc. A subsequent focus of the study will be on the demands placed on the EU. In conclusion, concrete proposals should be derived for the improvement of the efficiency of civil-military cooperation in conflict management and crisis prevention.

Geographical boundaries:

Regions and states in the eastern and south-eastern geographical borders of the EU will be analysed. In accordance with this, the academic work will concentrate on:

• Western Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, pan-Albanian question, Montenegro)
• Turkey (Kurdish question, northern Cyprus)
• Baltic States (Russian minorities)
• Ukraine (Russian and other minorities, west-east dichotomy in the country)
• Moldavia (Transnistria conflict)
• Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia)

Detailed programme of work:

Until mid-2007 the focus will be on the evaluation of existing studies on the application of violence. In 2007/2008 an evaluation will take place of measures that have prevented or not prevented the outbreak of conflicts. In 2009/2010 an analysis will take place of unsolved conflicts. Two workshops will be held annually; the research project will be concluded with a publication and an international conference. End of project: 31.12.2010.