New report: Troubled waters for Danish defence and security policy
A new Centre for Military Studies report — published in Danish to inform the coming negotiations over the next 5-year defence agreement — highlights conditions and balances in Danish defence policy and identifies possible handles that can enable strategic and political governance in — and debate on — Danish defence policy.
The report takes its starting point in the increasingly international conditions for Danish defence policy. It identifies main features of Danish defence policy as it appears today. In doing so, the analysis focuses on the level between security challenges and concrete defence policy choices on material, personnel and structure. This level contains both evolving international conditions for defence policy — including increased patterns of cooperation and rising prices for high-tech equipment — and opportunities for strategy and governance in defence policy.
Against this background, the report identifies four strategic balances that are relevant to future prioritisation in Danish defence policy and its armed forces. These are the balance between a national and an international focus; the balance between operational capabilities and support functions; the balance between an operational focus on war fighting or an operational focus on control; and the balance between personnel and equipment. These balances show different pathways to different types of future armed forces. In the continued development of the armed forces, these balances can also support a dialogue on identifying and measuring strategic goals for Danish defence policy.