Trigger-Happy, Autonomous, and Disobedient: Nordbat 2 and Mission Command in Bosnia

In one particularly infamous incident, the Bosnian Serb Army set up an ambush for the battalion's Danish tank company. By launching a feint attack against a remote outpost, the Bosnian Serb Army lured a detachment from the tank company to drive straight into a trap. Anti-tank missiles and heavy guns opened up from concealed positions. Once the Danes started to take fire, their response was furious. The detachment commander simply told his crews to neutralize the anti-tank positions. The Leopard tanks directed accurate and deadly fire against the Bosnian Serb Army positions, using up no less than 72 main gun rounds. One by one, the anti-tank missile batteries and gun positions fell silent. During the fight, a Bosnian Serb Army ammunition supply was hit, resulting in a large explosion. After the engagement, Nordbat 2 estimated that as many as 150 troops may have been killed, although the Bosnian Serb Army denied this.

The incident greatly upset the UN regional command, which threatened to relieve Nordbat 2's battalion commander and have him sent back to Sweden. Nevertheless, Nordbat 2 had once again refused to let the parties to the conflict dictate the terms of its deployment. In several other incidents, Nordbat 2 personnel intervened to protect refugees and took action to prevent the cover-up of ethnic cleansing operations. On several occasions this took the form of forcing passage through roadblocks. During one such event, the battalion commander himself forced a sentry to remove the anti-tank mines used to block passage by threatening to blow the sentry's head off with a heavy machine gun.

During two consecutive rotations, Nordbat 2 upheld its freedom of movement and initiative in an area of operations where many other UN outfits felt obliged to abide by the rules laid down by the parties to the conflict. The third rotation was the last to make use of force and the threat of force in a significant manner. When the fourth rotation deployed, a more cautious battalion commander in combination with an intensification of the conflict marked a shift to a less confrontational stance. The fifth rotation was the last to serve under UN command. During the final phases of its deployment, the so-called Implementation Force (IFOR) replaced the UN-led peacekeeping force, which was under NATO command. This heralded a new era during which NATO enforced the new peace treaty in a manner unthinkable during the UN years.

The remarkable history of Nordbat 2 illustrates both the virtues and perils of having a well-entrenched culture of mission command in a unit employed in a complex operational environment. On one hand, it bred commanders who felt compelled to always act, and to always put the mission objectives first. This enabled Nordbat 2 to cope with completely new and unexpected situations in a hostile and unfamiliar environment without becoming passive like so many other UN units. Personnel trained to fight on their home soil against a Soviet invader suddenly had to navigate the complex political terrain of the war in Bosnia. The battalion had to cope with an indecisive and passive chain of command, and a multitude of different armed parties to the conflict ranging from semi-national armies to drug-fueled paramilitary criminal outfits led by warlords.

Nordbat 2's willingness to bend or even break the rules, and disregard direct orders...enabled it to achieve its mission objectives...protect the civilians at all cost. However, this also poses a challenge to the traditional civil-military dilemma...

Instead of taking on regular troops in mechanized combat, Nordbat 2 found itself in a conflict characterized by ethnic cleansing, massacres, smuggling and random violence. Nevertheless, it was able to operate with a surprising degree of effectiveness.

This can be contrasted with the Dutch peacekeepers who were deployed in Srebrenica. The Dutch unit and Nordbat 2 operated under the same regional command, in the same general area. The Dutch peacekeepers, representing a professional elite airborne unit, were more or less helpless for more than a year inside the Srebrenica enclave because they were unwilling to initiate any confrontations with the parties to the conflict, and because they were willing to be micromanaged by their home government. Nordbat 2, on the other hand, was something of a loose cannon, and earned a reputation as a force to be reckoned with. It even became known as "Shootbat" for its tendency to return fire, regardless of the formal rules of engagement.

Nordbat 2's willingness to bend or even break the rules, and disregard direct orders from both UN command and its own government, enabled it to achieve its mission objectives as defined by the first battalion commander: protect the civilians at all cost. However, this also poses a challenge to the traditional civil-military dilemma: on several occasions Nordbat 2 did not accept the control of its civilian leadership. Accustomed to mission command, Nordbat 2 acted as it had been taught: rules can be broken as long as it is done to achieve the mission objectives.

In research on public administration, it has been argued for decades that political objectives can frequently be impossible in the sense that they are contradictory or simply do not provide the necessary tools to allow lower-level officials to achieve the policy objectives at hand. In response, these officials tend to take initiatives of their own and act outside the boundaries in order to get the job done.[5] This is exactly what Nordbat 2 did, and what mission command was originally created to do in a military context.

The most essential component of mission command is trust. As long as political leaders can trust the local commander to make the right choices, mission command can be an incredibly powerful force multiplier. Even though Nordbat 2's first battalion commanders were very unpopular with the Swedish government for their refusal to take orders from home, they were nevertheless greeted as heroes upon their return and remain viewed so to this day. This meant the Swedish government did not have to deal with the political fallout of the otherwise failed UN mission. The Dutch government, for example, was hard-pressed by public opinion after the massacre at Srebrenica in the summer of 1995. In 2002, the entire Dutch government was forced to resign over Srebrenica, after a detailed report blaming the government for the failure was released to the public.