Working Worldwide for the Security of the Netherlands Protecting the links that guarantee our security and generate prosperity (flow security)10 should also be reflected in our security approach. This includes protection against cyberattacks and safeguarding our strategic independence, vital infrastructure and energy and resource security. | 24 | Shaping the Netherlands’ integrated international efforts calls for clear coherence between goals and the many available policy instruments in devising responses to the security environment described above and the most urgent security threats. They should all contribute to a coherent security policy, within which strategic goals, policy focus and deployment of the broad range of available instruments are closely linked and reinforce each other. Building on the integrated 3D (defence, diplomacy, development) approach, this requires integration and orchestration of national and international involvement. That is why the choices made in adjoining policy areas are closely related to this strategy. That applies, for example, to: • the modernisation and strengthening of the armed forces (as described in the Defence White Paper); • policy on foreign trade and development cooperation (on which a new policy document is forthcoming); • diplomacy enhancement (the government’s letter to parliament on the mission network); • the integrated migration agenda; • the theme-based, regional and country policy frameworks; • measures to improve economic security; • policy on the intelligence and security services; • the National Cyber Security Strategy; • the Digitisation Programme; • international policing strategy; • the National Counterterrorism Strategy. 9. The WRR defines human security as follows: ‘Human security has acquired a broad meaning in thinking on development issues. It embraces not only the individual’s personal situation, but also the confidence people can have in public services and social conditions that are vital to them. Human security is pre-eminently an issue that Working Worldwide for the Security of the Netherlands Planetary Security Initiative Through the Planetary Security Initiative, the Netherlands helps to better coordinate efforts on climate, security and sustainable development in practice, especially preventively and in post-conflict situations. The initiative is a good example of strategic policy integration and coherence. The IISS rests on three pillars (prevent, defend and strengthen) on the basis of which its strategic goals have been formulated. The pillars cannot always be strictly separated from each other, but are interconnected to some extent. Effective defence, for example, also helps prevent security incidents. The Netherlands’ strategic efforts for each pillar are described below. In the interests of readability, we have tried to reduce repetition between the pillars to a minimum. 4.1 Prevent This security approach focuses on the root causes and breeding grounds of our insecurity. Security efforts under this heading contribute to other Dutch foreign policy objectives, such as promoting our trade interests, reducing poverty and protecting human rights. A successful preventive and anticipatory policy not only ensures that we keep up with developments, but is also more cost-effective. Preventing insecurity is cheaper than suppressing conflicts that have erupted into open violence, and intensified security threats. Research suggests that investing one euro in prevention can save as much as sixteen euros on the costs of repairing damage.11 A strong intelligence and information capability, including insights into the hidden intentions of other actors, is crucial to an anticipatory and preventive security approach. Although an agenda of prevention is desirable, it is not always easy to achieve, especially in times when multilateralism is under pressure. The results of prevention are often less clearly visible and measurable than, for example, the effects of combating a group like ISIS after it has become openly active. Political urgency is then a given, while that is often less the case for prevention. That makes it even more important to define goals sharply. That calls for patience, complicated preventive diplomacy and investments in addressing the long-term causes of insecurity within and outside the Kingdom. The link to foreign trade and development cooperation is therefore particularly important with regard to this pillar. must be seen from a multidisciplinary perspective: not only from the viewpoint of international relations, but also anthropologically, geographically, psychologically, legally and in the light of socioeconomic circumstances.’ WRR report no. 98, Security in a World of Connections: A Strategic Vision on Defence Policy, 12 April 2017. 10. The WRR defines flow security as follows: ‘It must be possible for food, raw materials and other goods and services to reach their destinations or to be exported unhindered via supply routes ; the same applies to essential data flows, which can be disrupted physically (e.g. by the destruction of deep-sea cables) or electronically (through online manipulation, also known as cyber warfare).’ WRR report no. 98, op. cit. 11. Institute for Economics and Peace, 2017. | 25 |