The Common Effort Community
The Platform
“What is essential is resilience across society – resilience in the event of a crisis beyond the military – i.e. politics, society and industry, for the common goal of defending our freedom and our security.”
Nico Tak
The Necessity
The purpose of the comprehensive approach is to coordinate and maximise the resources of diplomacy, security policy, the economy, development cooperation and humanitarian aid across the boundaries of ministries, departments and institutions. The better the various actors and stakeholders understand and know each other, the better they will be able to coordinate and synchronise their planning and actions to achieve better and more sustainable results.
Having focused on crisis response in developing countries, the Common Effort Community is now also looking at hybrid threats and resilience. This new pillar will address current challenges to national and collective security and defence. These challenges are characterised by hybrid threats and nefarious activities by potential adversaries.
“The simultaneity of all conceivable manifestations of warlike confrontations is an essential component of this war picture – from archaic-looking war of attrition on land to drone warfare, fierce battles for superiority of effect in cyber and information space, and not least hybrid warfare.”
Carsten Breuer
Chief of Defense, German Armed Forces
The Two Pillar Approach
Collective Defence, Hybrid Threats and Resilience
The war in Ukraine shows how fragile peace and freedom are. Nations are under pressure and face multiple threats that require a comprehensive, whole-of-society approach. Societies need to prepare for and increase their resilience to attacks on their infrastructure, their political system, their government and, above all, their social and national cohesion. Building resilience in our complex world requires cooperation and mutual understanding between different actors and stakeholders.
The pillar will focus on the cross-sectoral and interdepartmental impact of attacks on critical infrastructure and ultimately on the resilience of state structures and societies.
Aim is, to develop and build a network of experts from the political, administrative, economic, military, social, infrastructure and information technology sectors and to get a better common understanding of the problems posed by hybrid threats.
Crisis Response Operations
It is striking to note that the same actors, who today are responsible for the deteriorated security situation and subsequent global food- and energy crisis, also threaten Europe’s interests in the G5 Sahel and in West Africa (Gulf of Guinea States).
This involves studying and addressing the challenges related to crisis response and stabilization efforts in the Sahel Region, which has become a priority for many European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands.
The aim of this pillar is to analyze crisis response operations, draw analytical conclusions, and develop effective strategies for managing and responding to crises in the region.
By focusing on spill-over areas, this pillar recognizes the interconnected nature of security challenges and seeks to address their broader implications, integrating both the policy and the working level.
Excercises and Conferences
“With the latest developments, geopolitical developments, in the world, you can see that the security situation in West Africa is deteriorating. We have seen several coups in several countries. We’ve seen the insertion of private military companies like the Wagner Group into parts of West Africa, and all of that makes this particular conference very valid at this moment in time.” June 13th 2023
Lieutenant General Nico Tak
Commander
1 German-Netherlands Corps
“This is also a strength of this conference, that we have the higher profile people also together with the people who are working on the ground. So that we bring these different perspectives together, because very often we find that the political discourse takes place disengaged from what is happening on the ground.” June 13th 2023
Sabine Odhiambo
Secretary General
German Africa Foundation
“This is the first conference that we participate in with our partners in the Common Effort Initiative, so [that is] also a very happy and lucky occasion to team up with the 1 German-Netherlands Corps, with the Lighthouse Africa Project and also for this occasion with the German Africa Foundation.” June, 13th 2023
Dr. René Klaff
Head of the International Department
Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit