ABSTRACT
Since the end of the cold war the smaller European countries’ military participation in international peace support operations has changed in several ways. In 2004, the decision to maintain a small Norwegian military presence in Iraq in connection with the training of Iraqi officers was made without the support of the Labour party, making it the first time Norwegian troops were deployed abroad without the support of Norway’s largest political party. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Labour party, on the other hand, emphasized that military contributions to UN International Forces in Lebanon gave weight to Norwegian diplomacy in the Middle East. In 2001 the Defence Ministry also proposed to establish a new rapid reaction force. The new force would consist of 700 mainly enlisted, professional soldiers. Special forces and other smaller specialized units were already based on enlisted personnel, but a professional unit of this size was yet another novelty in the Norwegian defence structure.
