Summary
Jaïr van der Lijn
Grenzen aan de Nederlandse capaciteit voor deelname aan vredesoperaties
Jaïr van der Lijn elaborates the capacity problems of the Dutch military as far as deployment for international peacekeeping missions is concerned. Dutch public-opinion calls for military intervention can be frequently heard, in particular for Dutch involvement in Darfur. The Netherlands has, however, already forces deployed in Uruzgan, and the Ministry of Defence warns that the military apparatus is stretched to its limits. What's the problem? Why is it far from 'easy' to deploy a field hospital in Darfur? And, why does Defence face difficulties in despatching more than 2,000 of its 62,000 personnel on an international mission? It appears that the ambitions that have been set for the Netherlands Armed Forces are not easy to achieve in practice. Only half the total number of Defence personnel is available for operations. This group has to train for and recuperate from these tasks and has furthermore to fulfil the other main tasks of the Armed Forces. Moreover, the units or modules which are requested for missions are often not widely available. On top of that, so-called troop enablers, to support deployment of these modules, are required. As a result it becomes clear why the deployment of the Netherlands Armed Forces is a complex task and fulfilling the levels of ambition is difficult.