Si vis Pacem, para Bellum, an old Roman saying went: If you want peace, prepare for war. Loosely translated, you could say: if you want to be somewhat certain that people will not interfere with you unless you ask for it, then you must have the means to enforce that. However, since 1975, the Dutch Defense has had to deal with enormous budget cuts that raise serious doubts about the feasibility of the ambition level.
The Dutch armed forces during the Cold War
Despite its small size, the Kingdom of the Netherlands has a highly regarded armed force. At the time of the Cold War, the armed forces employed more than 150,000 people, spread across various areas, but mainly stationed in what was then West Germany. As a member of the NATO alliance, the Netherlands had to deposit a certain part of the gross national product into the NATO pot from which financial support for operations would be paid. After all, the allies had agreed that an attack on one of the member states would be considered an attack on NATO as a whole. Infrastructure was also paid for from this pot of financial resources, which provided employment, especially in West Germany. Barracks and bases were built and constructed as well as housing for the soldiers and their families.
A vacuum was created by, among other things, the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, Gorbachev’s Glasnost and German Chancellor Kohl’s attempts to reunite the two Germanys . The enemy of old had its own internal problems and many satellite states, such as Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary, thought it was time to stand on their own two feet again. The result: NATO was left without an enemy and was therefore in danger of losing its right to exist. The end of the Cold War was the signal for the Dutch government to initiate a series of cuts at the expense of defense.
Smaller but more effective
Since 1975, the Dutch defense organization has undergone many reorganizations. Reorganizations in the form of downsizing. One part after another disappeared by dissolution or by merging with other parts. The motto was: reorganize towards an affordable, quickly deployable and effective armed forces. However, reorganization is not just downsizing and greater effectiveness cannot always be achieved with fewer people per se. Moreover, reductions in personnel and equipment also cause problems. The Leopard tanks have been for sale for quite some time, but they still cost money because they have to be maintained and tested for functionality from time to time. Due to budget cuts, fewer and fewer aircraft are in an operational state of readiness because spare parts are no longer allowed to be purchased for financial reasons. In order to obtain the number of operational aircraft required by NATO, aircraft are scrapped to obtain parts. So: smaller yes, but more effective is still the question, let alone when we talk about efficiency.
Ambitions
Despite the shrinkage, the ambition level remains alarmingly high. Military personnel have enormous deployment pressure and this has an influence on the social environment and home front. Despite everything, the Netherlands wants to keep itself on the map and be taken seriously when it comes to the use of military resources. That becomes difficult if you end up with very outdated equipment that has been kept operational by cannibalization. There is also new material, but for each material there are restrictions regarding its use because it should be related to the prevailing threat. In a swampy area you cannot do much with tanks and armored vehicles. If you know that your opponent has a lot of good planes then you should have more of them.
Yet there are people who believe that it should all go away. The army can be army. That would be quite possible. However, we now also know that history has a tendency to repeat itself. And who benefits from the fact that we cannot get ourselves out of trouble? Hiring external workers is an even more expensive issue.