B2 The Daily of Geopolitical Europe. News. Files. Reflections. Reports

West Africa - SahelBlog AnalysisPSDC crisis management

Planning innovation: the ConopsPlus

(BRUXELLES2) The fact does not make the front page, and will probably not make the front page tomorrow :-). But it deserves at least a few lines. Experts in civilian crisis management are now looking into a "ConopsPlus" for the future European capacity building mission in Niger (Eucap Niger). Notable fact. The European Union's planning mechanism has often been criticized as quite cumbersome and ill-suited to lighter civilian missions. EU planners have therefore demonstrated a sense of adaptation, especially as political leaders have asked them to speed up the deployment of this mission; faced with the risk of growing instability in the Sahel, it is important to consolidate the rule of law and the security of Niger's forces.

The ConopsPlus, further than a simple concept...

The ConopsPlus is a Concept of Operation that goes beyond the classic Conops but addresses in a second part points of detail that could be specified previously in the OpPlan - the Operation Plan.

Planning in civilian missions has a different approach to military operations, at the level of objectives and operational, but also administrative. The budget is largely taken care of at the community level. To have an effective budgetary discussion, it is necessary to have an idea not only of the objectives of the mission but also of its means, in particular the staff and their location. This requires a certain precision, close to the Operation Plan. The advantage of this ConopsPlus is therefore to have a single discussion on all aspects of the mission.

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

s2Member®