The Usability of the European Armed Forces : Measuring Input and Output to Military Effectiveness

Despite the size of EU member states? armed forces of more than 1.5 million troops and total national defence budgets of approximately 170 billion euros, the European Union has proved unable to launch a credible military force to back its own policy goals. Moreover, a large gap exists between the military capabilities that European states can offer and the capabilities required by the EU and NATO.

This study by Theo van den Doel addresses these longstanding problems. Van den Doel argues that the present political mechanisms used by international organizations to manage their political-military decision-making processes are outdated. He suggests that the statistics currently used to assess states? military power should be replaced by a new set of input and output indicators. Implementation of these new parameters by the member states would enhance the usability of the European armed forces.

Van den Doel also designs a set of convergence criteria that should prevent divergence in capabilities of national European armed forces and that may serve as ?entry criteria? to qualify for closer military and political cooperation. Furthermore, these convergence criteria could also be used to encourage harmonization and possible future integration of the European armed forces.