Francesca Hooft is an assistant professor at the History of International Relations section of the Department of History and Art History at Utrecht University. She obtained her PhD in 2022. Hooft previously published on the tension between different (moral and legal) frameworks for military medical personnel. Hooft’s research provided advice to the Dutch Defence Healthcare Organisation on improving pre-deployment preparations, deployment healthcare, and personnel welfare both during and after deployments. Her current research interests include military interventions and humanitarianism, ethics in conflict, the position of non-combatants, political ecology, memory, and transitional justice.

• Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Professional identity.- Chapter 3. Dutch involvement in peacekeeping, peace-enforcing, and humanitarian missions.- Chapter 4. Pre-deployment phase: transitions, preparations, tensions.- Chapter 5. Military deployment: Confrontation with the conflict zone, scarcity, danger, and triage.- Chapter 6. Military deployment: The military organisational and social culture.- Chapter 7. Ethical dilemmas, coping mechanisms & professional autonomy.- Chapter 8. Post-deployment: Lessons identified, lessons learned, and the giving of meaning.- Chapter 9. Conclusion.

“Physicians and Nurses in the Dutch Armed Forces certainly is a fascinating and important book ... . One of the great accomplishments of Hooft’s book is that she makes perfectly clear that it does matter in which organization a doctor or nurse wants to help. Cultures differ, obligations differ … . Hooft makes it clear that doctors and nurses must ask themselves searchingly who they are and what they are, before engaging in medical care in times of war.” (Leo van Bergen, Medicine, Conflict and Survival, April 2, 2025)

Francesca Hooft is an assistant professor at the History of International Relations section of the Department of History and Art History at Utrecht University. She obtained her PhD in 2022. Hooft previously published on the tension between different (moral and legal) frameworks for military medical personnel. Hooft’s research provided advice to the Dutch Defence Healthcare Organisation on improving pre-deployment preparations, deployment healthcare, and personnel welfare both during and after deployments. Her current research interests include military interventions and humanitarianism, ethics in conflict, the position of non-combatants, political ecology, memory, and transitional justice.

• Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Professional identity.- Chapter 3. Dutch involvement in peacekeeping, peace-enforcing, and humanitarian missions.- Chapter 4. Pre-deployment phase: transitions, preparations, tensions.- Chapter 5. Military deployment: Confrontation with the conflict zone, scarcity, danger, and triage.- Chapter 6. Military deployment: The military organisational and social culture.- Chapter 7. Ethical dilemmas, coping mechanisms & professional autonomy.- Chapter 8. Post-deployment: Lessons identified, lessons learned, and the giving of meaning.- Chapter 9. Conclusion.

“Physicians and Nurses in the Dutch Armed Forces certainly is a fascinating and important book ... . One of the great accomplishments of Hooft’s book is that she makes perfectly clear that it does matter in which organization a doctor or nurse wants to help. Cultures differ, obligations differ … . Hooft makes it clear that doctors and nurses must ask themselves searchingly who they are and what they are, before engaging in medical care in times of war.” (Leo van Bergen, Medicine, Conflict and Survival, April 2, 2025)

Francesca Hooft is an assistant professor at the History of International Relations section of the Department of History and Art History at Utrecht University. She obtained her PhD in 2022. Hooft previously published on the tension between different (moral and legal) frameworks for military medical personnel. Hooft’s research provided advice to the Dutch Defence Healthcare Organisation on improving pre-deployment preparations, deployment healthcare, and personnel welfare both during and after deployments. Her current research interests include military interventions and humanitarianism, ethics in conflict, the position of non-combatants, political ecology, memory, and transitional justice.

• Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Professional identity.- Chapter 3. Dutch involvement in peacekeeping, peace-enforcing, and humanitarian missions.- Chapter 4. Pre-deployment phase: transitions, preparations, tensions.- Chapter 5. Military deployment: Confrontation with the conflict zone, scarcity, danger, and triage.- Chapter 6. Military deployment: The military organisational and social culture.- Chapter 7. Ethical dilemmas, coping mechanisms & professional autonomy.- Chapter 8. Post-deployment: Lessons identified, lessons learned, and the giving of meaning.- Chapter 9. Conclusion.

“Physicians and Nurses in the Dutch Armed Forces certainly is a fascinating and important book ... . One of the great accomplishments of Hooft’s book is that she makes perfectly clear that it does matter in which organization a doctor or nurse wants to help. Cultures differ, obligations differ … . Hooft makes it clear that doctors and nurses must ask themselves searchingly who they are and what they are, before engaging in medical care in times of war.” (Leo van Bergen, Medicine, Conflict and Survival, April 2, 2025)