1 - Introduction: The Script and Its Cast

Summary

Introduction

Imagine an afternoon at military headquarters in the United Kingdom. Two generals are smoking a cigar during a short meeting break. They are discussing a possible deployment of their armed forces, anticipating an upcoming request of NATO to its member states to contribute military forces for an expansion of the Alliance's presence in Afghanistan. Whilst talking, the first contours of a plan to deploy their forces into south Afghanistan see the day of light.

What appears to be a collegial talk between two military senior officers sharing their thoughts on a potential deployment of their forces is actually not as futile as one might think. In fact, these generals are the directors of operations of their respective militaries. One is from the United Kingdom and the other is from the Netherlands. Their initial ideas came to fruition in a series of actions and decisions that, ultimately, led to the deployment of British and Dutch armed forces into southern Afghanistan.

The deployment of military forces for international military interventions raises fundamental questions such as why these interventions are undertaken in the first place but also how these decisions were taken. The use of military means is often treated as a neutral, an ‘all-in-one toolkit’, to be utilised when other methods for achieving a particular political goal fail. By learning about why and how foreign policy decisions on the deployment of military forces are made, we gain information about the intentions and strategies of governments and, respectively, how definitions of the problems at hand are translated into action. Put differently: “Who becomes involved in a decision, how, and why is essential to an explanation of why decision-makers decided the way that they did”.

The particular focus of this study is the role of the military in foreign policy decision-making on the deployment of military forces. Hence, investigating the ‘how’ of their role in foreign policy decision-making is as important as investigating the ‘why’ of their involvement. The outcome of this study will inform various academic fields and policymakers since direct military involvement in foreign policy decision-making has long been anathema in both academic and practitioner circles.