Ranking the Performance of European Armed Forces

Abstract

The degree of collectiveness aimed for in European defence policy raises issues such as burden sharing and relative performance measurement of the European Armed Forces (EAF). This paper compares EAF performance rates on three dimensions: input, throughput and output. In order to express performance, over the period of 1995–2008, differing measures are formulated for each of these dimensions. It appears that, in ranking the burden-sharing behaviour, it is the selection of a specific measure that defines the position of each European country. The implication of our study is that in meaningfully ranking the performance of EAF in the context of burden sharing, various indicators should be combined.

JEL code:

• H56

Keywords:

• Burden sharing
• Defence spending
• European armed forces
• Performance measurement

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors are most grateful for the valuable comments of an anonymous referee.