Over the past fifty years, crisis management has become essential to achieving and maintaining national security. This book offers a comparative analysis of the preconditions and constraints nine European states place on their participation in international crisis management operations and the important consequences of such decisions, and provides a theoretical framework to help the reader understand this complex decision-making process.

The past fifty years have seen a shift in the European strategic defence rationale, moving from territorial to collective security. Crisis management, the response to circumstances in international politics when preventative measures have failed and action is needed to stop a situation spiralling, has become essential to achieving and maintaining national security. In the aftermath of the Iraq war this decision process has acquired even greater significance. Marc Houben offers a comparative analysis of the preconditions and constraints nine European states place on their participation in international crisis management operations and the important consequences of such decisions. The book provides a theoretical framework to help the reader understand this complex decision-making process.