Swedish military doctrine also empowers commanders to take independent action on when to engage, since it is to be assumed that in the event of war the political and military leadership would be either taken out or infiltrated.

That's one of the reasons the Swedish led Operation Bøllebank could engage the Serbian army, whereas the Dutch were forced to ask their leadership for permission to engage and never got it, leading to the Srebrenica massacre.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_B%C3%B8llebank

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

TIL about Bøllebank, but I'm having trouble finding information about Dutchbat and Srebrenica. The Wikipedia states that the people who denied air strikes were non-Dutch and makes it sound like the Dutch were just unequipped to strike back to start with. I'd read "Srebrenica: a 'safe' area", which is the conclusive review, but it's a giant tome that doesn't appear to be very digitally accessible.

[–] baru@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

The Dutch military was under equipped due to the government dictating the equipment instead leaving that to the military. As a result they couldn't do much, plus relied on air strikes. I think the point that was made is an interesting one.

[–] baru@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

whereas the Dutch were forced to ask their leadership for permission to engage and never got it, leading to the Srebrenica massacre

The Dutch also didn't have enough firepower. Political decision that keeping the peace works best if you're heavily under equipped.