MA Thesis B.W. Dencher
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New players, new entries? The connection and influence of the private military and security industry on political assistants of the ministry of Defense in the Netherlands B.W.Dencher S1743546 Master thesis Crisis and Security Management Faculty Governance and Global Affairs University Leiden Supervisor: Dr. C.F. van den Berg Final version: 23 March 2017 Summary A new functionary made its debut across different parliamentarian systems in in the 1980s and 1990s. Ministers were increasingly faced with a deficiency in both their own capacity and capability to respond adequately to the growing demands placed on them by the civil service, parliament and the then emerging 24-hour media circus. To ensure their own political survival, ministers appointed political advisors to their side. With the first of these appointments in the Netherlands in 1994, political assistants have become a common and accepted sight in the governmental and political elite of the Netherlands. While first being scrutinized as shadowy figures, political assistants are now widely believed to have a positive effect on the workings of government. The first wave of research, domestically and international, found that the political assistants could serve as channels for the unwarranted influence of lobbyists and interests groups due to their function as gatekeepers, and trusted aides, to the minister. However, the first wave of research is seen to be inconclusive on this issue. This thesis has sought to provide an answer to this question by examining the connections between the private military and security industry and political assistants working at the ministry of Defense and if the former uses the latter to exert influence on the Defense policy of the Netherlands. The findings of this research, based on interviews with several political assistants, an unique dataset containing information on all political assistants since 1994 and an extensive literature study, show that a connection that would allow even the most occasional influence to be extorted on the Defense policy does not exist between political assistants of the ministry of Defense and the private military and security industry. The interviewed insiders do hint that a connection exists at other levels of the Defense organization, with former military personnel becoming lobbyist and utilizing their connections to their former colleagues. The unwarranted influence of the private sector could therefore still exist but seems to ignore the political assistant. This does not imply that their relevance for the private sector will remain low, as the function of the political assistant is continuously evolving and might one day possess a level of influence over Defense policy. It is therefore of importance to conduct further, and a wider, research into political assistants and their connection to the private sector to develop a deeper understanding of the interactions between the political assistant and the private sector. "2 Table of contents Summary ...................................................................................................................2 Table of contents .......................................................................................................3 Chapter 1: Introduction ..............................................................................................5 1.1 Scientific relevance ................................................................................................................7 1.2 Social Relevance ...................................................................................................................8 1.3 Thesis lay out .........................................................................................................................9 Chapter 2: Literature overview ................................................................................10 2.1 Political Assistants in the Netherlands ................................................................................10 2.2 Private military and security industry in the Netherlands ..................................................17 2.2.1 Defense Industry in the Netherlands ......................................................................17 2.2.2 Private military contractors ...................................................................................19 2.2.3 The Dutch government and PMC’s ........................................................................21 2.3 Political assistants and the private industry........................................................................ 24 2.4 Hypotheses flowing from the theoretical findings ...............................................................28 Chapter 3: Methodology ..........................................................................................32 3.1 Research design ...................................................................................................................32 3.2 Empirical strategy ...............................................................................................................33 3.3 Operationalization ...............................................................................................................34 3.4 Validity .................................................................................................................................36 3.5 Reliability............................................................................................................................. 37 Chapter 4: Empirical findings ..................................................................................39 4.1 Political Assistants and the Private Industry .......................................................................40 4.2 Political assistants and Connaughton’s typology ................................................................45 4.3 Political assistants and the four Arena’s ............................................................................51 Chapter 6: Conclusion .............................................................................................53 "3 List of References ....................................................................................................55 Newspaper articles ....................................................................................................................59 Defense industry websites ..........................................................................................................60 Appendix 1: Private Military Companies ................................................................61 1.1 Categorization of PMC’s .....................................................................................................61 1.2 Overview of employed PMC’s by the Dutch government in Afghanistan ............................61 Appendix 2: Summary of interviews .......................................................................64 2.1 Standard interview invitation e-mail ...................................................................................64 2.2 Interview questions ..............................................................................................................65 "4 Chapter 1: Introduction ‘In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.’ (Pres. D. Eisenhower, 1961 ‘A homogenous interest group—in this case, defense contractors— has a vested interest in increasing spending or favorable regulation that will transfer wealth from government to the group.’ (Brito and Watkins, 2011, p. 39) ‘The number and influence of ministerial advisors have become a source of public concern in the last decade in many countries. Media and government enquiries have pointed out their growing numbers, the opacity of their status and the lack of clear accountability structures in which they operate.’ (OECD, 2011, p. 3) The new functionary mentioned by the OECD (2011) emerged in the administrative and political elite of the Netherlands in the 1990’s and has firmly established itself in the Hague in 2017. Called special advisors or ministerial advisors in other countries but known as political assistants (PA) in the Netherlands, these men and women1 are tasked with aiding their minister2. These tasks vary widely, however the primary goal is the same: ensuring the political survival of their minister. In the Dutch ’merit-based’ and a-political civil service PA’s, themselves highly politicized functionaries, are in a special position and act as confidants of their minister, safeguarding their political interest. The manner in which they do so has caused them to be seen as a ‘shadow army’ (NRC, 2012), themselves eschewing the public eye. Academical attention has been substantial in various countries, finding that PA’s can influence policy and act as gatekeepers to their ministers whom is approached by private interest groups and lobbyist. These groups aim to further their own agenda by influencing the minister and governmental policy, which constitutes as an unwarranted influence that causes a democratic deficit. Political assistants could be an interesting actor for these groups considering their proximity to a minister. This 1 In this thesis PA refers both to a male and female PA. 2 In this thesis minister and a state secretary share the same denomination. "5 research seeks to determine