Democratic%20Civil-Military%20Relations

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Democratic Civil-Military Relations

• LTC. Ferenc Molnár
• Office for Strategic and Defence Studies

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Introduction

• Two challenges at the same time
• Democratic transition
• Adapting the post-cold war environment

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Aim of the presentation

• Spreading information about principles, norms,
  and practice of democratic CMR

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Topics

• Defining democratic civil-military relations
• Democratic control over the armed forces
• Building democratic control in Hungary

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Definition of CMR

• CMR means the relationship
• between the state and the military,
• and between the society and the military

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The feature of the DCMR

• In war
• Minimizing public conflicts is the interest both
  statesmen and military leaders independently from
  the possible fact that they intervene into each
  others competency, responsibility.

• In peace
• Public conflicts raise continuously due to the
  permanent control of politicians, experts,
  journalists, and NGOs.

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The feature of the DCMR

• Politicians have to decide on the operating
  issues of military-policy
• 1. Quantitative issues of the size, recruitment,
  and supply of the military (proportion of state
  resources devoted to military needs.).
• 2. Qualitative issues of the military
  organization, composition, equipment, and
  deployment of the military. (Such as type of
  armaments, weapons, location of bases, allies
  etc.)
• 3. Dynamic issues of the utilization of military
  forces (when and under what circumstances)

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Consequently

• The fundamental issues of institutional policy
• are
• always present,
• continuously redefined
• and never solved.

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The aim of the DCMR

• Develop a system, which able to maximize military
  security at the least sacrifice of other social
  values.

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Military professionalism The core of the
DCMR is the relationship between the state and
officer corps

• Officer corps is the active directing element of
  the military structure and responsible for the
  military security of the society.

• The state is the active directing element of the
  society and responsible for the allocation of
  the resources among important values.

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Civilian/Democratic Control

• Civilian democratic (political)
• Control guiding and checking

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Democratic Control in wider sense

• The guiding and checking role of state power
  branches.
• Civic activity, NGO-s, media geared towards the
  military
• Members in the military (Their democratic values,
  attitudes).

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Narrower understanding of democratic control

• State power branches ( legislative, executive,
  juridical) are able to withhold military abusing
  its power
• and
• the system has to withhold the executive power
  too using force for its particular purpose.

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Democratic control

• Depoliticisation of the military
• Demilitarisation of the society
• Militarysation of the military profession
  (empower its professionalism and prestige)

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Democratic control in Hungary

• Democratic control of the AFs
• legitimate the AFs and the defense policy
• confidence building in a foreign political sense
  and necessary for the Euro-Atlantic integration

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Initial steps in Hungary

• 1989 the authority of the Communist Party was
  ended in the military
• The changes of the constitution and the Defense
  Act clarified civilian competencies over the AFs

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Early 1990s

• Hungary developed the legal and organizational
  frameworks of democratic control in which
• the Parliament decide about operational issues
  and the Defense Committee permanently checking
  the military-related decisions and procedures
• the President is the Commander in Chief with
  rather ceremonial roles in peace
• the MoD (executive power) has most of the
  regulating rights towards the military on daily
  bases
• the GS leads the AFs and works out suggestions
  during the decision making process for the MoD.
  

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Remaining problems

• Separated MoD and GS
• Lack of civilian experts
• Lack of procedural routine
• Widening gap between the society and the military