Atlantisches Forum: International Organizations and Military Affairs: How the UN, NATO and EU organize their Crisis Management Operations

From the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations to the NATO International Staff and the European External Action Service, international bureaucrats make decisions that affect life and death. In carrying out their functions, these officials not only facilitate the work of the member states, but also pursue their own distinct agendas. Hylke Dijkstra analyzes how states seek to control secretariats when it comes to military operations by international organizations.

Prof. Dijkstra shows that member states employ a wide range of control mechanisms to reduce the potential loss of influence. They frequently forfeit the gains of delegation to avoid becoming dependent on the work of secretariats. Yet while states invest heavily in control, Prof. Dijkstra also argues that they cannot benefit from the services of secretariats and keep full control over outcomes in international organizations. In their delegation and control decisions, states face trade-offs and have to weigh different cost categories: the costs of policy, administrative capacity, and agency loss.

Dr Hylke Dijkstra is an Assistant Professor (with tenure) at the Department of Political Science of Maastricht University, The Netherlands. He was previously a Marie Curie Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations of the University of Oxford, where he was also affiliated to Nuffield College. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Contemporary Security Policy.

Hylke Dijkstra holds a PhD in Political Science (cum laude) from Maastricht University. He read Contemporary European Studies (MPhil) in Cambridge and European Studies (BA) and Economics (BSc) in Maastricht. During his studies, he spent short periods at Yale University, the Corvinus University of Budapest and Stockholm University. He worked for the Dutch EU Presidency at the Permanent Mission to the UN in New York and DG Enlargement of the European Commission.

Hylke Dijkstra is interested in the role of international organizations in the area of security. He has published extensively on the European Union, NATO and the United Nations, including in Cooperation and Conflict, Global Governance, International Peacekeeping, Journal of European Integration, Journal of European Public Policy and The Review of International Organizations. He is author of International Organizations and Military Affairs (Routledge, 2016) and Policy-Making in EU Security and Defense (Palgrave, 2013).

Hylke Dijkstra is the winner of the 2008 prize for best article in European Foreign Affairs Review for scholars under the age of thirty-five. For his dissertation, he received the Otto von der Gablentz Academic Prize and the G.A. Van Poelje Prize.