From Imperial Policing to the Comprehensive Approach to Operations

Abstract

Around the beginning of the 21st century in relation to security NATO declared the comprehensive approach. The declaration of this approach means that the Alliance adapted to the constantly evolving security challenges it became increasingly unable to manage on its own. The comprehensive approach makes clear that the application of military force can only be successful if it is embedded into the concerted application of a more complex set of political, military, and civilian crisis management toolkit. An easy conclusion would be that the comprehensive approach is a logical consequence of the unfolding new century, but history shows that the British Empire employed similar tools when, after World War I, it wanted to consolidate the posessions it had gained in the wake of imperialist expansion.