Dutch Involvement in Peacekeeping, Peace-Enforcing, and Humanitarian Missions

Dutch military engagement changed between 1990 and 2010, as did military medical personnel’s tasks and roles. This chapter provides a historical overview of the major developments in the Dutch military healthcare organisation, including policy changes and the professionalisation of education for medical personnel. Meanwhile, it provides the historical context of the Dutch involvement in peacekeeping, combat/stabilisation, and humanitarian operations between 1990 and 2010. It gives a broad political and military context for each mission, as well as the healthcare situation. The researched period concerns a transition to expeditionary military engagement which required medical personnel to take on a more active role. They deployed increasingly scattered throughout the deployment environment, were expected to provide high quality medical care within set time limits, and interacted frequently with local civilians. Medical personnel, besides their ‘mission enabling role’ of securing healthcare for the troops, increasingly took on a ‘mission achieving role’, contributing to force protection through winning hearts and minds and local healthcare development.