NATO-EU Cooperation on C4ISR Capabilities for Crisis Management

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This paper addresses enabling solutions to enhance the NATO and EU cooperation facing the new emergency threats that characterize current crisis scenarios. Military and civilian actors are required to work together and cooperate in Crisis Management, using state-of-the-art capabilities for solving societal crises in order to prevent the escalation to conflict and to avoid or alleviate the consequences of natural or man-made disasters. However, technical shortfalls and political issues still hamper the integration and cost-effectiveness use of NATO and EU capabilities. The NEC/Web-2 concept can enable interoperability between NATO and EU; military support of C4ISR capabilities to civilian authorities cooperating in both civil emergencies and crisis management could be the key driver to overcome the political issues that still undermine NATO and EU cooperation and therefore a pragmatic approach to pooling and sharing of capabilities, thus preventing duplication of efforts. Following the principles of C4ISR Comprehensive Approach, this article highlights the initiative of NC3A—the NEC architect for NATO—to support multi-national and interagency interoperability for civil-military cooperation in coordination with NATO OPS Division and relevant EU and international governmental and non-governmental bodies involved in Crisis Management/Civil Emergency operations. It also outlines enabling cooperation areas such as Science and Technology, regional cooperation and joint exercises in crisis management.