Page 48 - The Cormorant Issue 14

CJEX Paris:
The Art of Plannification
Lt Col P A Johnson REME
It has to be said that, for many, the prospect of conducting yet another Operational Estimate did not fill us with joy. Worse still, having just about got to grips with the UK way of doing things, this one was to be conducted within the NATO Guidelines for Opera- tional Planning (GOP) framework, a process which demanded a 177 page tome to explain it. Could the exercise possibly get any worse? Well, we could have been stuck doing it in Shrivenham I suppose... However, to a select band of men and women these concerns were ‘sans conséquence’, since we were to be conducting the CJEX at the École de Guerre in Paris. Located in the historic École Militaire complex, under the shadow of the Eif- fel Tower, we would undoubtedly be drawing inspiration from the ghost of its most infamous graduate, Napoleon. Or, if the martial muse eluded us, we could just muddle through with our new European friends and savour ten days in beautiful, springtime Paris. In fact, could the exercise be considered a taster of things to come, in light of the new Anglo-French defence agreement?
Officially, CJEX aimed, ‘to promote a better understanding of the challenges in planning and coordinating multinational opera- tions.’ In reality, we discovered that it would have been better stated as, ‘to experience other nations’ attitudes to planning, to work collaboratively and without the aid of PowerPoint for at least 30 minutes each day, and to avoid disagreement descend- ing into a diplomatic incident.’ Whilst being a rather flippant description, this is not intended to demean the value of CJEX. It was genuinely fascinating to see the varying work ethics of each European nation, to come up with strategies to harness enthu- siasm and bypass apathy, and to understand different national interpretations as to what is important in the planning and deci- sion making process. Furthermore, since each syndicate was mentored by a retired French one star, such as Brigadier Jean- Philippe Ganascia, force commander of the 2008 EUFOR Chad operation, the chance to pick the brains of an operationally expe- rienced senior officer was invaluable.
Conducting European ‘plannification’ – as one French officer styled it – was an education on many levels. At the time, follow- ing the GOP process felt oddly soulless, being driven more by the need to fill in PowerPoint slides than to provide any real analysis of the problem. With hindsight, and the benefit of going through the UK Estimate more fully, it seems that our own process also makes us slaves to Microsoft, albeit that the UK prefers a good, weighty Word document to PowerPoint charts. Perhaps we all need to reflect a little more on the logical analysis that should underpin our
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A DS Briefing