Security in an Interconnected World: A Strategic Vision for Defence Policy

This open access book follows the idea that security policy must be based on strategic analysis. Defence policy and the role of the armed forces can subsequently be determined on the grounds of said analysis. More than ever, internal and external security, and developments both in the Netherlands and abroad are interconnected. The world order is shifting, the cooperation within NATO and the EU is under pressure and the Dutch armed forces are gasping for breath. What is the task of Dutch security and the defence policy? There have been growing calls in the last few years to end the devastating cuts in the defence budget and to invest more in security. The acute threats and conflicts in which the Netherlands are involved have served as a wake-up call. The shooting down of Flight MH17 over Ukraine, the streams of refugees from Syria and other countries, the conflict with Da’esh in Syria and Iraq, and terrorist threats reveal how events in many of the world’s flash-points have a direct or indirect impact on the Netherlands. Conflicts in other countries have a spill-over effect in The Netherlands. This is illustrated by tensions between population groups and the clashes over the Gülen schools after the failed putsch in Turkey on 15 July 2016 and over the constitutional referendum in that country. How do we ensure that any additional funds are not divided amongst the branches of the armed forces without any sense of strategic direction? What should a future-proof security policy that plots the course of defence policy entail? What strategic analyses should lie behind the political choices that are made? This book answers these questions and offers a comprehensive framework addressing among other things human security, national security and flow security.

Huub Dijstelbloem is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Politics at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Senior Researcher and Project Leader at the Scientific Council for Government Policy in The Hague (WRR). As a visiting scholar he was affiliated to the University of California San Diego (2014) and to the University of Mapoto’s Center for Policy Analysis (2010). He is involved in public debates about science, technology and democracy and is one of the initiators of Science in Transition His research is concerned with border control technologies, security policies and migration issues and has been published in various books, edited volumes and journals including Nature, Geopolitics, International Political Sociology, Security Studies, the Journal of Borderland Studies and the European Journal of Social Theory.

Peter de Goede is senior researcher at the Scientific Council for Government Policy (Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid) in the Netherlands. He studied (comparative) political science at Radboud University in Nijmegen and worked at the same university as assistant professor in the Department of Public Administration. He obtained his doctorate at Leiden University with a thesis providing a comparative history of 80 years of public broadcasting policy in the Netherlands. Peter has also worked as a senior advisor at the Council for Public Administration (Raad voor het openbaar bestuur).