ABSTRACT
In democratic societies, the employment of military force is always a matter
of political decision-making. At the national level, there are usually legal
frameworks and procedures in place that ensure the responsiveness of the
national military organization to political guidance in general, as well as in
the context of planning for, and conduct of, any particular operation.
Similar decision-making processes and procedures and the necessary legal
framework have been established and exercised within the North Atlantic
Alliance for more than half a century. To a somewhat lesser degree of uniformity, similar procedures have been exercised within the United Nations
(UN) Peacekeeping Operations framework.
