Shifting Parameters of Military Crisis Management

Author(s): Andrea Baumann
Editor(s): Oliver Thränert
Series Editor(s): Andreas Wenger
Book Title: Strategic Trends 2013: Key Developments in Global Affairs
Series: Strategic Trends
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Place: Zurich

The nature of Western involvement in military crisis management is changing. Reluctance over sending troops into combat in faraway places induces a preference for indirect or enabling roles in Western capitals. Partnership has become a code for rapid transfers of responsibility to local forces or regional coalitions. A large Western footprint is not only costly in political and material terms. It also runs counter to the hard lessons drawn from Afghanistan. Yet whether other actors are ready to buy into the partnering model remains to be seen. Sometimes, leading from behind or intervening with a light footprint may not be feasible options.

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