Opinion: The message 'ready for the fight' in the Defence White Paper raises concerns.
‘Strong, smart and together’ is the name of the recently published Defence White Paper, which is being debated in the House of Representatives along with the Defence Budget. The document should give us guidance in uncertain times, but above all it raises concerns.
The document is clearly influenced by the war in Ukraine, which hangs over the text like a shadow. The paper articulates the Dutch strategic goals in the changing geopolitical context. The strategic goals are: ‘Deter and be prepared for large-scale conflict’, ‘Ready for the fight of the future and changing threats’ and ‘Ready for national tasks’.
This approach raises concerns. Being ready and prepared are operational matters and, as a result, it seems that for the Netherlands, operational readiness has been elevated to a strategic goal. We may hope that our strategic goal is to be and remain politically independent and sovereign, along with maintaining our territorial integrity. Operational readiness, readiness and deterrence are the means we should use to that end. Deterrence needs communication and commitment in addition to persuasive capabilities, which the document discusses at length. The latter two cannot be done without diplomacy and clear political stances. On this, the the Defence White Paper is very brief.
Clear role of politics missing
Thus, goals and means, strategy and operation get mixed up. The major flaw in this paper is the lack of a clear role for politics and political policy here but also elsewhere. Where is the political objective to which our resources are aligned? We cannot assess in this way whether the (achievable) goals are provided with the right and most appropriate means to achieve them. In the absence of a clear idea on how to win the confrontation, the doing, the operation, the ‘getting ready’, the preparation, ultimately continues to determine policy.
Clear articulation of strategy important
The Netherlands is far from the only state that finds it difficult to reconcile a clearly formulated goal with the right and appropriate means. We only have to look around us at the many conflicts taking place near but also far. In the absence of a clear objective, the use of force quickly degenerates into barbarism. This is not a new insight but falls back on the ideas of Carl von Clausewitz at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He argued that war is the continuation of politics by other means. It is more important than ever to clearly articulate our strategy and strategic goals because it is simply too dangerous to elevate ‘doing it’ to strategy. We ourselves have seen in Afghanistan and Iraq where this mismatch between ends and means and the dominance of the operational level can lead.
A previous defence minister once remarked during a discussion afternoon that the ministry has been looking for the good story to go with the ‘nice stuff’ it has for so long. That good story is there, but is still proving very difficult to articulate.
Prof Dr Isabelle Duyvesteyn is professor of International Studies, Leiden University and has contributed to the science review of the 2022 and 2024 Defence White Paper.