International Crisis Management

The past fifty years have seen a shift in the European strategic defence rationale, moving from territorial to collective security. Crisis management, the response to circumstances in international politics when preventative measures have failed and action is needed to stop a situation spiralling, has become essential to achieving and maintaining national security. In the aftermath of the Iraq war this decision process has acquired even greater significance. Marc Houben offers a comparative analysis of the preconditions and constraints nine European states place on their participation in international crisis management operations and the important consequences of such decisions. The book provides a theoretical framework to help the reader understand this complex decision-making process.

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Table of contents : Part One: Problem definition and framework of analysis
1. Introduction and plan of the book
1.1 The double political problem of international crisis management
1.2 Preconditions versus 'criteria for intervention'
1.3 Research questions and methodology
1.4 Defining the key terms: ambiguities and conundrums
2. Elements of change
2.1 The twin processes of normalisation and domestication
2.2 Process and principles of self-organisation
2.3 On the nature of the crisis
3. Three propositions
3.1 States are sovereign, only marginally free
3.2 The imperative of cooperation
3.3 All states are constrained
Part Two: The case studies: a comparative analysis
4. Changing the rules:Belgium and the Netherlands
4.1 Belgium
4.2 The Netherlands
4.3 Concluding remarks
5. The imperative of consensus: Denmark and Norway
5.1 Denmark
5.2 Norway
5.3 Concluding remarks
6. The dominant government: the United Kingdom, France and Spain
6.1 The United Kingdom
6.2 France
6.3 Spain
6.4 Concluding remarks
7. The dominant parliament: Germany and Italy
7.1 Germany
7.2 Italy
7.3 Concluding remarks
Part Three: Comparative analysis and conclusions
8. National preconditions and multinational action
8.1 Nature and charactersistics of the national decision-making process
8.2 Do participation decisions fit a general pattern?
8.3 How and why do governments precondition their participation?
8.4 What are the consequences for multinational action?
9. The relation between government and parliament
9.1 Binding the government
9.2 Obtaining and sustaining domestic support
9.3 Does national decision-making improve if preconditions are formalised?
9.4 Parliamentary scrutiny and evaluation
9.5 Parliament as a democratic learning mechanism
Annex. The review framework of the Netherlands