This week the EU has launched the EU Integrated Resolve 2020 (EU IR20), a complex crisis management exercise to enhance the EU’s ability to coordinate and respond to external conflicts and crises, with a focus on Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) planning processes and operational conduct in a hybrid threat environment.
From 21 September to 4 December 2020, the EU will carry out an exercise to test its response tools and mechanisms to address a crisis outside the EU. In particular, EU IR20 focuses on how to manage a crisis affecting EU assets abroad, such as a military operation and a civilian mission deployed in a fictitious country and its EU delegation on the ground. This goes from planning a CSDP mission and operation to respond to a request from a fictitious partner country to addressing a hybrid threat affecting EU assets on the ground.
The exercise is led by the EEAS, with the participation of the Council, the European Commission and Member States. As part of the EU’s international partnerships, the EU IR20 will count on the participation of NATO staff and EU partners like the US, Canada and Norway. The military operation and the civilian mission will be planned and conducted respectively by the Military Planning Conduct and Capability (MPCC), within the EU Military Staff, and the Civilian Planning Conduct Capability (CPCC).
Background
The EU Crisis Management Exercises under the Common Foreign and Security Policy take place every two years since 2012. In 2018, the EU led the first Parallel and Coordinated Exercise (PACE) with NATO, EU HEX-ML18, covering a crisis with an external and internal dimension under a hybrid environment.
The EU IR20 does not mobilise real assets on the ground. It carries out the necessary politico-military strategic planning for a military operation and a civilian mission and simulates their operational conduct under a hybrid threat environment, in coordination with a selected EU Delegation.
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