Established out of the desire to bring humanitarian relief in man-made human disasters, such as war and other armed conflicts, international humanitarian law (IHL) prescribes the legal obligation of the conflict parties and armed forces to permit ICRC's humanitarian operations. All over the world the …

Established out of the desire to bring humanitarian relief in man-made human disasters, such as war and other armed conflicts, international humanitarian law (IHL) prescribes the legal obligation of the conflict parties and armed forces to permit ICRC's humanitarian operations. All over the world the …

The author focuses on the complex phenomenon of Hezbollah and its supporters. Although concluding it is unique in its combination of strategic objectives, military capabilities, the weak state of Lebanon, Iranian and Syrian military and political support, and the religious theocratic ideology, this is …

The author compares Israeli and Hezbollah land warfare with the principles stipulated for this in Dutch Army doctrine. It reveals the difficulty any western regular army would have when faced with an adversary partially employing irregular war fighting methods. This asymmetry includes some more structural …

In studies of soldiers’ fears and behavior during war it has been generally acknowledged that their paramount concern is not fear of death, but the fate of their comrades and subordinates. This study aims to delve deeper into this issue. This study deals with the impact of actual death threat on self-perceptions …

The Afghan government is the subject of this contribution, which investigates how it has developed over time, what the efforts of recent years to build it up have resulted in, and – its actual objective– what it means for foreign militaries, such as the Dutch in Uruzgan at present, to have a weak …

The authors take a legal perspective at the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, but also illustrate the difficulty states armed forces have when facing non-state adversaries. International law (ius ad bellum) and the laws of war (ius in bello) both seem to originate most of all from the history of western, …

Because of the high-risk deployments into Afghanistan, soldiers’ parents have become more important in public opinion as well as in activities of family support groups. Although their voice is heard louder than ever before, research into parents’ experiences in the course of deployment is sparse. This …

The Dutch society of today is a very mixed one. Different cultures from all over the world come together in one small country. One of the reasons that the Dutch society contains so many different cultures is because of its colonial history. The Surinamese population is one of the many ethnical minorities …

In the Netherlands, there have been many discussions about whether or not to establish a European Defence Organisation. However, due to the political party D66 (Democrats '66), this discussion has been revived in 2006 to such an extent that it really had an impact on political agendas of the Dutch political …