Closing the loop: towards strategic defence management

Abstract

How do defence-organisations (or organisations with comparable profiles) of other countries map out policy goals and how are policy goals related to activities and capabilities and the required financial means, and finally how does the feedback loop on the performance in all these areas take place? To answer this question, the The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) - in close cooperation with representatives from the Netherlands Defence Organisation (NDO)i - studied the planning processes of five defence organisations (Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom) and of one non-defence organisation, the World Food Programme. The HCSS team faithfully followed the protocol for such benchmarking studies that was developed by TNO for the MoD.