Democratic Civil-Military Relations

LTC. Ferenc Molnár

Office for Strategic and Defence Studies

Introduction

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

Aim of the presentation

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

Topics

• Defining democratic civil-military relations

• Democratic control over the armed forces

• Building democratic control in Hungary

Definition of CMR

CMR means the relationship

• between the state and the military,

• and between the society and the military

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.

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)

The feature of the DCMR

Consequently

The fundamental issues of institutional policy

are

always present,

continuously redefined

and never solved.

The aim of the DCMR

Develop a system, which able to maximize

military security at the least sacrifice of other

social values.

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.

Civilian/Democratic Control

• „Civilian”= democratic (political)• „Control” = guiding and checking

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).

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.

Democratic control

• Depoliticisation of the military• Demilitarisation of the society• Militarysation of the military profession

(empower its professionalism and prestige)

Democratic control in Hungary

Democratic control of the AF`s:

• legitimate the AF`s and the defense policy

• confidence building in a foreign political sense and necessary for the Euro-Atlantic integration

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 AF`s

Early 1990`sHungary 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 AF`s and works out suggestions during

the decision making process for the MoD.

Remaining problems

• Separated MoD and GS• Lack of civilian experts• Lack of procedural routine

• Widening gap between the society and the military