The deployment of multinational military formations: Taking political institutions into account

The authors analyse the way “interoperable” multinational forces can and should be conceived and deployed.

Introduction

Multinational military formations exist in many forms, shapes and colours. Their size varies; their raison d’être varies; the type of military units involved varies; and the countries involved vary. In most cases governments take into consideration the economic, militarytechnical and operational arguments for participation in a multinational formation. They participate because it will save them money for example, or it enables them to maintain a critical capability, such as F-16 fighter planes. States thus usually take care to shape the units in a way that contributions complement each in technical terms and that the whole unit pays off in economic terms. Not often, however, is the compatibility of the political systems of the participating countries taken into account when a multinational unit is formed. Our contention is that more attention should be paid to the political/institutional compatibility of participating states when creating multinational units. Some political systems are more compatible than others and this fact has consequences for the effectiveness of jointly owned multinational units.

We develop our argument in two steps. First, we demonstrate that the successful deployment of multinational units requires the synchronisation1 of national decision-making procedures. Generals may call for technical “interoperability” of the forces; yet if the political processes behind multinational participation are not adequately coordinated, states may come to regret their participation in a multinational military unit. Thus, although it is very difficult to harmonise national decision-making processes in a structural fashion, some form of synchronisation is required and necessary in the short term. Secondly, we will show that, in order to achieve synchronisation, the character of national decision-making processes of the participating states has to be taken into account. Only if one recognises the importance of similarities and differences in these processes can adequate instruments for synchronising political decision-making be devised. And only if these instruments are put into practice can multinational units become truly effective instruments.

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Marc Houben is a research fellow working at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels. Dirk Peters is completing his PhD research at the University of Mainz.

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