The U.S. military is studying the Dutch mission in Afghanistan for ways to incorporate the hundreds of additional civilian specialists the Obama administration is adding to the war effort.

Civilian specialists are needed in addition to the 21,000 U.S. troops to be added in the coming months, officials have said, but they have also acknowledged some difficulty in integrating the civilian and military missions.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the United States is now studying a Dutch effort that "has better integrated the efforts of its military and civilian personnel than the U.S.," the paper reported.

The Netherlands has some 2,000 personnel in Uruzgan province, which is in central Afghanistan, and officials from the Dutch foreign ministry help command the team. Aid workers are also embedded in the Dutch team, officials said.

Dutch soldiers in the article were quoted as saying that acting mainly as a protection force for diplomats and aid workers — instead of conducting offensive operations — has "contained violence." Still, Uruzgan province is not a Taliban stronghold and doesn’t have a large opium crop.

"Dutch soldiers and civilians have done excellent work," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last week after meeting her Dutch counterpart. "In fact, the Dutch ‘3D’ approach — defense, diplomacy, and development pursued simultaneously ... is a model for our own efforts and the future efforts in Afghanistan."