De toekomst van Defensie: Horizon 2030

Reflections on a Belgian
Limited use of Belgian Defence in day-to-day civilian protection
Economic return expected (employment, investments etc).
Mission statement
What is the threat for which Belgian Defence System has to protect the
country? In order of significance/likelihood.
Burden sharing of defence on threats against western freedom (not
specifically against Belgium, but against our allies and supranational
alliances) = NATO, EU, etc.
Extremism and Jihadism
Cybercrime
Actions against key infraructure (nuclear sites, energy distribution,
harbors, etc)
Clean-up of explosive devices (WW and new explosives)
Lone Wolf actions
We could add to these characteristics a certain number of roles and
responsibilities in a modern society, which have to be discussed and
assessed:
Training self-defense and self-reliance of each citizen
Harnessing community responsibility and community building
Assisting police forces in exceptional circumstances
Protection against natural disasters, which are likely to happen more
frequently in the future due to climate change (e.g. floods)
Mission statement
The Belgian Defence forces should update and communicate their mission
statement, which could eg. be formulated as follows :
Defence of Belgium and its allies
Support of the civilian authorities
Promotion of peace within an international context
The first part has become less urgent than in the past, and has significantly
altered with the fall of the Iron Curtain, with currently no clear mass enemy
or threat of invasion. However, given current underinvestments in Europe,
and the retreat of US defence forces, Europe looks already increasingly
vulnerable for conflicts at its borders, which could have a contagion
effect on its internal stability.
Nevertheless, too much resources still tackle this goal, and this should be
reassessed with the current geopolitical situation in mind.
Even if we consider the EU-borders or NATO-borders, modern wars are
less likely to be in the form of mass war fare, rather than a very technological
kind of warfare, and even more likely an economic or financial kind of
warfare. For this latter, Belgium is very poorly equipped (cyber crime, corporate
espionage and corporate extortion, etc).
Kabinet Defensie en Ambtenarenzaken - vandeput.fgov.be