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Executive Summary of the Military Transition Seminar,
Baltic Defence College, Tartu, Estonia, 18 Oct 2002
By Marc Remillard*
he Baltic Defence College held a re- military officers themselves, BG Clemmesen Poland, for instance, was the length of time
search seminar on the issues of believed that they should demonstrate their it took to create a new constitution (five
military transition on 18 October 2002. professionalism, and be able to think years). Only by 2001 was the General Staff
The following executive summary presents outside the box. fully adopted into G1, G2, and G3 NATO
an outline of the various contributions The first presentation was given by structures. In his conclusion, Major Gen-
and findings of this seminar. Major General Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, the eral Tyszkiewicz provided an evaluation of
Brigadier General Michael H. Clemme- title being The development of effective the Polish experience, elaborating on a
sen, the Commandant of the Baltic De- central staffs focus, ethos, organisation, number of lessons learned, which included
fence College (BDCOL), gave the welcome procedures, links between the units and the importance of stable budgets, realistic
address to the participants of the Military central staffs. Drawing on his experience goals and timelines, and the need to estab-
Transition Seminar. In his speech, he stressed at NATOs HQ, the kitchen of NATOs lish training links.
the importance of NATO membership as strategic planning, Major General Commenting on this first presentation,
an objective of defence reform, and argued Tyszkiewicz described the process of tran- Ambassador Jüri Luik, former Estonian
that such a goal makes it imperative that sition, as it has occurred in Poland. Re- Defence Minister, pointed out the paral-
politicians work closely with the military, form has been in the direction of NATOs lels between the Polish and the Estonian
given that the former are elected, and are basic standards, but implementation has experiences. Following independence,
answerable to the domestic population. For not been easy. A problem in the case of Estonia created what Ambassador Luik
* Marc Remillard is Head of International Projects, Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF)
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called a small replica of the Warsaw Pact, lem tied to demographic trends in Rus- process schematically, Col. Siposne
which had to be changed once NATO sia. Kecskemethy defined the needs of mili-
membership became the countrys goal. In his comments on Dr Nuricks pres- tary reform in terms of concept, re-
The subject of the next presentation entation, retired Brigadier General Janis sources, and willingness. For Hungary,
was Reforming the Body of the Army: a Kazocins, former UK advisor to the the concept developed has been that of
Perspective from Russia, which was de- Slovak CHOD, quoted the Wall Street Jour- lean, light and lethal armed forces.
livered by Robert Nurick, the Director nal as saying that the problem behind Human resources have been the focus of
of the Carnegie Moscow Centre. In his the Russia-West tension is the military. reform in Hungary (the main reform
outline of the state of military reform in This he felt was a little exaggerated, but to resource in Hungary is the human re-
Russia, Mr Nurick noted that there has be taken into account nonetheless. On the source), and have been organised in line
been little real progress. Attempts have difficulties of reform, BG Kazocins with a new career management system.
been made by past defence ministers, but pointed out that the military is conserva- This system has involved the attachment
with only very limited success: for exam- tive by nature, and tends to favour exist- of rank to positions and making progress
ple, poor attendance remains a problem, ing structures and resource planning. based on regular evaluations.
with approximately 1/3 of junior offic- Such an outlook should be replaced with Representing the Czech Ministry of
ers positions currently vacant. In spite the recognition that plans and structures Defence, and in particular its human re-
of events such as the sinking of the Kursk, tend not to survive contact with the en- source division, Mr Zdenek Dvorak
and the renewed military engagements in emy. For this reason, they must be able concurred with the Hungarian focus on
Chechnya, nothing has managed to gal- to adapt to changing situations. human resource management as the key
vanize military reform in Russia. As key Following presentations on the Polish to defence reform. In his own words,
factors explaining this failure, Mr Nurick and Russian experiences, Colonel Klara the devil is indeed hidden in the details.
pointed to over-sized requirements (Too Siposne Kecskemethy, of the Hungar- Continuing with this focus on human
big a bite, all at once), and perception ian Ministry of Defence, spoke about The resource management, BG Michael H.
that events in Kosovo indicated the Creation of an effective cadre develop- Clemmesen gave a presentation on Of-
strength of the threat still posed by the ment and management system, in the ficer Cadre Education Reform. Build-
West. Also cited was the lack of political context of Hungarys experience of de- ing on the comments of BG Kazocins,
support for reform, and a conscript prob- fence reform. Setting out the reform BG Clemmesen emphasized the centrality
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of change to military education. Rather central executive structures. Accepting armed forces being able to understand
than focus on doctrinal issues, and fitting that politicians and the military do not each other. Such is the lesson to be learnt
the theory onto the practice, education and always speak the same language, Ambas- from events such as General Jacksons re-
training systems must be given by leaders sador Luik argued for active interaction fusal of General Clarks order to retake
and managers, who can themselves stand as between the two spheres, notably in the Pristina Airport (Kosovo) in 1999.
professional role models. In addition to form of strategic guidance documents and As respondent, Commander David
ordinary officers, military academics must the educating of politicians in military Clarke pointed out that problems of civil-
also think out of the box. affairs. Essential also is a proper dialogue military relations are not particular to the
This stress on adapting training and edu- with the public, one that would inform East, but exist in the West also. Examples
cation to changing rather than static secu- the public of what demands are necessary, given included the U.S., where Donald
rity environments was present in Colonel and what hurdles are to be overcome. Rumsfeld recently over-ruled, as Secretary
Algis Vai²eliunas response to the presen- Reform planning is driven by a correct of Defence, a decision made by the Joint
tation by BG Clemmesen. As Comman- assessment of threat perceptions, and the Chief of Staff on the identity of the next
dant of the Lithuanian Military Academy, public must be informed of what threats Chief of Operations. Commander Clarke
Col. Vai²eliunas spoke about Lithuanias the government is focusing its efforts on. also made the points that Ministry of De-
approach to reform, which involves always In addition to public understanding, fence activities today are about planning,
thinking about the future. Thinking out there is a need for the military to under- programming and budgeting, and that con-
of the box should make the soldier to con- stand exactly what demands are to be made temporary security is less about soldiering,
sider non-military scenarios, and orient- of it by governments. Any misunder- and more about National Security. By that,
ing education to the consideration of chang- standings are likely to lead to objections Commander Clarke indicated that issues to
ing environments should imply a break with on the side of the military. In the light be addressed are those of Law Enforcement,
the old heritage. According to Col. of clarifying objectives and demands, Finance, Border Security and Asymmetric
Vai²eliunas, this can only be done with a Ambassador Luik cited PfP and NATO threats, all of which demand inter-operabil-
group of newly trained instructors. documents as particularly informative, ity, international coordination, and the in-
In the last presentation before the break and he suggested that as international ac- creasing contributions of other armed
for lunch, Ambassador Jüri Luik spoke tivities increase, the success of coopera- forces, notably the police and other non-
on Political-Military Cooperation at the tive efforts would depend upon different military structures.
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