Joachim Koops, Jean Monnet Chair in the European Union's role in Security and Global Affairs, and Sophie Vériter, PhD candidate and member of the EURISGA team at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, published a new chapter on “The Netherlands' approach to EU CSDP and UN peacekeeping operations: assessing a ‘big small power’ in European and global security”.
The chapter examines the role of the Netherlands in European and global security from the perspective of a so-called ‘big small power’. While the Netherlands has often been described as a medium power, or as the biggest of the small powers in the European Union, the chapter explores the Dutch role by examining its approach to the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and related EU security and defence issues, alongside its role in United Nations peacekeeping. It argues that the Netherlands has punched below its weight in the CSDP realm but has managed to use its influence in UN peacekeeping strategically, notwithstanding its overarching preference for and troop contributions to NATO operations. The chapter also sheds light on the unusual fact, for a small state, that public opinion appears more favourable to stronger Dutch engagement in European and global security than the Dutch political elite, making the Netherlands an instructive case for the relationship between public opinion, elite consensus and international organisations.