Dissertation
Separation and immersion: the changing role of the armed forces in Northwestern liberal democracies
Van Vark defended her dissertation 'Separation and immersion: the changing role of the armed forces in Northwestern liberal democracies’ on 17 October 2025. The doctoral research was supervised by Maartje van der Woude and Erwin Muller.
- Author
- Annelies van Vark
- Date
- 17 October 2025
- Links
- Separation and immersion: the changing role of the armed forces in Northwestern liberal democracies
Liberal democracy is under pressure. This is partly due to the emergence of new security threats and declining social cohesion. Consequently, the role of the armed forces in society has also changed. This dissertation examines the contribution the armed forces can make to the stability of liberal democracy in Northwestern Europe. Three case studies were examined: the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland.The field of civil-military relations assumes a strict separation between the military and civilian domains in a liberal democracy and civilian control over the armed forces. This strict separation appears to be increasingly absent in the three countries studied. The historical context and the evolving threat assessment play a significant role in this. In Finland and Sweden, the armed forces play a strong role in politics and society due to the Russian threat and the total defense model developed in response, but are rarely deployed for domestic (police) tasks. In the Netherlands, the domestic role of the armed forces has actually grown since the end of the Cold War. The research shows that the field's strong emphasis on civilian control limits the effectiveness of response to emerging security threats in the gray zone between war and peace. This argues for normalizing the role of the military in politics and increasing its visibility in society. The Finnish model for "comprehensive security" could serve as a good example. At the same time, the degree of immersion in a liberal democracy cannot be unlimited; excessive militarization and civilian dependence on the military must be avoided.