Effective joint civil-military action in operational theatres has been shown to have its limits. In order to ensure essential interministerial and international coordination, any improvement must originate from an analysis of arrangements already in place in France or planned elsewhere.  Strong political will is needed in order to establish a light, permanent, flexible structure which will be able to develop a common interministerial view which is both coherent and apposite, and which will act as the lead agency for its implementation. This structure will use a methodology of interministerial appreciation of a situation to plan, execute and evaluate operations, based on accepted performance criteria.