Conclusion: Military rapid response—from institutional investment to ad hoc solutions

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book discusses the puzzling observation that despite the operational near-standstill, there have been few efforts undertaken to date to bring together insights on the obstacles to deployment and to compare between these organizations. It offers one of the first comprehensive and comparative contributions on military rapid response mechanisms to date by providing an assessment of the institutionalized mechanisms for rapid response and the inter-organizational relations that shape crisis responses in practice. The book illustrates how international and sub-regional organizations manage to set up international interventions that often not only hamper an effective rapid response, but sometimes engage in dysfunctional competition in conflict settings. It shows that institutional proliferation in rapid response is in fact a two-edged sword, already at the standby stage, as it also puts pressure on the often already limited financial and material capabilities of the states.