Walking The Thin Line Between War and Peace: Hybrid Threats and the Dutch Security Culture between 2009 and 2019

Abstract

Hybrid tactics of war considerably impact the feeling and understanding of the individual, national and international security. This thesis identifies how the Netherlands had to adapt to these hybrid tactics of war by researching how a hybrid security culture concerning hybrid warfare took shape in the Netherlands between 2009 and 2019. To understand if the growing attention towards hybrid conflict did cause a change in the ways of doing security in the Netherlands, this research identifies the core characteristics of the Dutch security culture. The research shows how the perception of threats presented by Dutch media coverage and knowledge institutes, can be divided into three waves. These three waves represented the contemporary state of mind regarding hybrid threats. Securitization theory helps in explaining how the third wave marked the beginning of the centrality of the audience. Mary Kaldor’s framework of four ideal types of security cultures is tested against the Dutch situation. Interviews with Dutch security officers and examination of official announcements made by the House of Representatives show how the Netherlands adhere to a combination of a ‘geo-political’ security culture and a ‘liberal peace’ security culture. This outcome goes against Kaldor’s assumption of how hybrid warfare fits in a mixture of ‘geo-political’ and ‘new wars’ security cultures. The convergence of the security cultures ‘liberal peace’ and ‘geo-politics’ in the Dutch case, shows that the way of dealing with hybrid warfare, can be much more diverse than is stated in the security culture literature presented by Kaldor. Moreover, the Dutch case highlights new continuities concerning Cold War practices.