Military Engineering – Practice, Education and Research in The Netherlands; the Golden Triangle

Abstract

After the Cold War period, the operational scope of the Dutch Army Engineers has evolved from providing mobility and contra-mobility in a static military setting towards a more integral approach. This approach aims at controlling the military environment, providing safety for military personnel and civilians in a dynamic complex military setting during expeditionary operations. From an organizational point of view, the Engineers Regiment is currently changing to address the needs for a more ‘adaptive’ military organization. In order to adjust to the changing military operational and organizational context, the Engineers Regiment is adopting new methods and techniques in the areas of military strategy, management, organization and technology. This requires rethinking the desired and required competences of the Regiment’s – current and future – employees. Certainly, this change of desired competences of personnel requires similarly fundamental changes at the level of vocational training of personnel as well as the academic education of future officers. Educational and research institutes within or associated with the Dutch Defence organization are challenged to anticipate interactions between military practice, education and research, i.e. the intensify collaboration within the Golden Triangle. This chapter addresses the above-mentioned developments and the required interactions between military practice, education and research within the academic educational and research program provided by the Faculty of Military Sciences in the Netherlands.