Policies Developed
While there is no stand-alone WGA strategy or policy paper in Luxembourg, 3D or integrated approaches appear in many sectorial policy papers. For example the country’s defence guidelines for 2025 and beyond (MFEA 2017: 13), notes that Luxembourg “supports national and international peace and stability efforts in a holistic and coherent approach combining diplomacy, development cooperation and defence (known as the ‘3D approach’)”, adding that its military “is also a component of Luxembourg’s foreign policy which, in conjunction with traditional diplomacy and development-cooperation policy, contributes to conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction.” The country’s most recent development-cooperation strategy (Luxembourg Aid & Development 2018: 1) states that Luxembourg “considers development cooperation as a key pillar of its foreign policy’s 3D approach (diplomacy, development and defence) and therefore actively engages with multilateral organisations, while supporting ongoing reforms in the international development system and promoting global efforts towards poverty eradication, environmental sustainability and human rights.” The MFEA’s mission statement (MFEA 2019) says that the ministry “endeavours to promote a coherent approach towards diplomacy, defence, development and immigration.” And, most recently, Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn’s speech to parliament on 13 March 2019 on Luxembourg’s foreign policy (Asselborn 2019) underlined that: “Luxembourg is committed, both through a multidimensional approach (i.e. the ‘3D’ approach of diplomacy, development and defence) and through a multilateral approach, to help concretely to build peace, security and prosperity where everyday life has hitherto been marked by conflict and poverty.”
The 3D approach has also paid off for Luxembourg. For example, it has enabled improved circulation of information; allowed for a more thorough preparation of decisions, actions, policies; and made possible more efficient monitoring of implementation. The institutional merger of the core ministries (diplomatic service, defence and development aid) dealing with internal crisis management and the creation of multiple inter-ministerial working groups has not only generated a more coherent and efficient foreign policy, but also fostered the formation of WGAs across the government. Most importantly, it has instilled a cooperative WGA mindset.
Furthermore, the 3D approach has led various government stakeholders to strongly embrace a coherent, common and integrated WGA, especially in the field of international crisis management, where Luxembourg’s small territorial size can only be compensated for by pooling its national resources and expertise. Indeed, nowadays, references to 3D, to WGA, to integrated approaches or to multidimensional approaches can be found in a wide variety of government documents related to crisis management, including cybersecurity, military mobility, hybrid threats, human rights, sustainable development and climate change.