ABSTRACT

Life for European defence planners has, regrettably, become relatively straightforward since 2014. From 1990 to 2014, security and defence policy development in the Netherlands – informed by both a transatlantic and European mind-set – tended to closely follow NATO and EU thinking. Future risks to European interests, and Dutch interests, were associated with the arc of instability: that would be the future operational environment for which the Dutch military needed to prepare. The main focus of Dutch security and defence policy up to 2014 was the promotion of the rule of international law and the deployment of the armed forces in peacekeeping and peace-enforcement operations around the world. Internal debates ensued within the Ministry of Defence leadership about spending priorities. The Ministry of Defence is forced to limit its ambitions to restore the combat readiness of units, their personal equipment, combat-support capabilities, and weapon systems, all of which have suffered from years of intense deployments and increased wear and tear.