ABSTRACT
The continuously growing airport Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is situated in a densely populated region near the economic heart of the Netherlands. Since the 1950s the Dutch government has struggled with the trade-off between the economic importance of Schiphol and the environmental impact of the increasing air traffic. In 1988 policy-making had reached a deadlock. Actors participating in the policy debate could not agree on the future of the airport, nor on the kind of policies that were needed to regulate environmental effects. In an attempt to break the deadlock, government formulated the so-called dual objective: the ambitious growth strategy of the airport would be combined with the simultaneous realization of environmental objectives. For the next twenty years (1988-2008), the policy discussion revolved around the translation of this dual objective into concrete policy measures.
