Defence Industrial Policy in Belgium and The Netherlands

The following piece endeavours to uncover the drivers of defence and industrial policy in Belgium and the Netherlands. It brings out convergences, divergences, as well as the main features of the defence industry across the two countries. In doing so it brings to bear upon both countries a similar set of parameters, which will be used to compare defence industrial policy across other key European countries.

The parameters used include a mapping of industry stakeholders (from political drivers to the technocratic structure, industry, think tanks and academia, and external influences including states), a look at their stance on key issues (the link between industry and jobs, the technological or industrial competencies to master at national level, security of supply, supply chains, the link to European supply chains and global supply chains, via Europe, the United States, or neither), and the influence they thereby exert on the country’s national position. Such parameters take into account the set of national policy documents that formalise the country’s defence industrial policy, and help to offer a prospective view of the future of the country’s defence industry…