ABSTRACT
In the 1990s, deploying Norwegian military and engaging in war outside national borders was a completely new situation that was subject to professional doubt and public debate. However, by 2011, when deploying for war in Libya – far outside Norway's normal sphere of interests – the activities were almost business-as-usual and routine for the response of the Royal Norwegian Air Force and the political leaders. The UK Government's National Security Council was a small group in London, UK. The 132 Air Wing (132 LV) operational planning group was a small group in Bodo, Norway. Both these groups, and many others, totally independent and disconnected in the network of power actors, influenced the emergence of the strategy in the Libya operation. Drawing on complexity theory, the processes of emerging strategies can be described as self-organizing processes. Such processes produce both structured and unstructured human actions as human actions produce the processes.
