NEWSLETTER of NATO – UKRAINE PARTNERSHIP NETWORK

[# 12]

THE ACTIVITY OF NATO – UKRAINE PARTNERSHIP NETWORK

Expert Assessment
and Recommendations for Future Editions
of the Annual “White Book. defence policy of Ukraine”

One of the most conspicuous manifestations and important factors of change in the relationship between the Armed Forces and society in recent years has been the publication of the “White Books”, which aim to familiarize citizens and foreign observers with the prime goals of a country’s defence policy, the means of its implementation, the structure of Armed Forces, and plans for their development. Such publications are issued in over 70 countries of the world, including virtually all European states.

In Ukraine a “White Book” has been published by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence (hereinafter – MOD) since 2005, this is in accordance with the Law on “Civil Democratic Control over the Military and Law Enforcement Agencies of the State”. It should be noted that, although this law applies to over 10 ministries and agencies, it is only the MOD that publishes a “White Book” annually, a fact which undoubtedly underlines the importance the Defence department assigns to transparency and strengthening of trust in relations with the civilian community.

From March to May 2010 a group of experts from the Center for Strategic Studies – along with civilian and military experts from Ukraine and other countries – performed an analysis of the “White Book – 2009. Armed Forces of Ukraine” with the aim of improving future issues of this annual publication.

Inasmuch as the goal of such “White Books” is the general dissemination of defence and security information, their preparation should strive to achieve the following objectives:

• Communicate to a wide audience the primacy of political approaches to defence issues, the orientation of all security sector activities towards developing civil society and strengthening constitutional law and order, and the accomplishment of constitutionally designated functions in the sphere of national security, defence and civil order;
• Foster compliance with the law in the actions of all components of the security sector;
• Contribute to political stability in society and the creation of conditions which would render impossible the use of the Armed Forces (hereinafter – AFU) to limit the rights and freedoms of citizens, overthrow the constitutional order, interfere with governmental bodies or pursue the interests of individual persons, political parties or civil organizations;
•  Prevent the violation of the constitutional rights and freedoms and protect the legitimate interests of the citizens of Ukraine who serve in the AFU, of retired military personnel, as well as of members of their families;
• Take into account public opinion and the proposals of citizens and civil society organizations when discussing and implementing decisions related to activities of the AFU and national security, defence, and law enforcement establishments;
• Persuade relevant officials and society of the importance of allocating necessary budgetary funds to the maintenance and functioning of the security sector, including the reforms of the AFU;
• Help ensure that the capital resources of the nation assigned to the AFU are used according to purpose and function;
• Provide timely, comprehensive and accurate information to the organs of government and society on the activities of the AFU and ensure their compliance with the constitution and laws of Ukraine, international law, the current political-military environment and the missions of ensuring the effective defence and security of the country and reinforcing public order.

Regrettably, a number of issues important to society are not adequately covered in the “White Book – 2009. Armed Forces of Ukraine”. In this situation there is an immediate need to draft basic directions for the improvement of the approach to preparing future issues of the annual “White Book”.

Analytical Commentary to the “White Book-2009. Armed Forces of Ukraine”

The list of issues addressed in the “White Book-2009. Armed Forces of Ukraine” does not allow for an adequate objective evaluation of the condition of development of the AFU. The following issues in particular lack the necessary level of explanation:

• The strategy of future development of the AFU;
• The civil democratic control of the AFU [1] ;
• The development of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine; and
• The financing of the AFU [2] .

[1] The “White Book-2009. Armed Forces of Ukraine” provides no information on the control of the military by relevant authorities, particularly the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian Parliament; hereinafter – VR), the VR Human Rights Ombudsman, the National Security and Defence Council (hereinafter – NSDC), and the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine.

[2] The limited information provided refers mainly to the problems of national budgeting and practically overlooks both the direction and implementation mechanisms of spending by the MOD, as well as the use of capital resources of the AFU. Moreover, the policy, functions and actual data on MOD activity in the area of state procurement remain unaddressed.

In addition, the language of the “White Book –2009” is inadequately adapted for the general public, and actually represents a blending of the styles of an expert dissertation with that of a reporter.

The “White Book-2009. Armed Forces of Ukraine” contains a lot of figures and quantitative indicators, but the method of their presentation is not comparative, which would have given one the capability to evaluate the level of adequacy of any given indicator.

RECOMMENDATIONS AS TO PREPARATION OF FUTURE ISSUES OF THE “WHITE BOOK”

This group of experts expresses its conviction, that if published with the following comments and suggestions, the “White Book” will not only be a testament of the aspiration for transparency in the current activities of the AFU, but will provide strong underpinning of public support of the efforts of the country’s leadership and the MOD in reforming the AFU according to the standards of a democratic state with the goal of raising their effectiveness.

1. Elevation of the Role of the “White Book” in the Process of Democratic Reform of the Security Sector

In our view the possibilities of “White Books” as a civil and democratic control instrument are insufficiently used to advance democratic reform of the security sector. Thus, we would recommend taking the following actions of a more general nature:

• Establish a working group for the preparation of the “White Book” based on a wider circle of experts (experts of the MOD, General Staff, Committee on National Security and Defence of the VR , and independent Ukrainian and foreign experts);
• Use intensively the mechanisms of consultations with foreign partners, public hearings, and academic research on the issues of the security sector reform;
• Use materials published in defence periodicals, such as the monthly magazine “Viisko Ukraiiny” (Ukrainian Army), the weekly Informational Defence Bulletin and the monthly Defence Newsletter of the Center for Defence & Security Policy, in preparing the “White Book”;
• Strengthen public support of the military by means of publication of materials in media and public appearances of experts;
• Substantially increase the circulation of the next issue of the “White Book” (at least to the level of “White Book –2008”), also by searching for appropriate donor assistance;
• Conduct a round table in the second half of 2010 in the VR – together with the VR Committee on National Security and Defence with participation of national deputies, representatives of governmental bodies, NGOs and media – to address the subject of legislative provisions and practical implementation of civilian control of the military and law enforcement bodies.

2. Suggestions for the Improvement of Content of the “White Book”

The “White Book-2009. Armed Forces of Ukraine” covers a wide variety of issues, but in our collective opinion there is still a lot of room for improvement of the content of the Book. To facilitate the improvement we would recommend a couple of organizational changes, as well as would like to highlight the most important in our view issues which would need to be included into the White Book:

• The working group mentioned above should be responsible for selecting the members of the editorial committee for the next edition of the “White Book”, which would prepare in July-August 2010 a list of the main issues to be included in the next edition of the “White Book”, as well as an outline of the content of the Book;
• The Minister of Defence of Ukraine should approve the list of issues to be included in the “White Book 2010” within a time span that will allow the editorial committee to acquire the necessary data from the appropriate structures of the MOD and the General Staff;
• The following issues should be included into the next edition of the “White Book” as priority components:

Defence Policy and Planning

1) The strategic goals of the development of the Armed Forces, the requirements placed on them, and the conditions for achieving these goals and meeting these requirements;

2) The political-military priorities of the state as to taking part in systems of collective security and the reform of the AFU, in particular the issue of creating a professional army;

3) The resource issues, in particular the allocation and use of budgets intended for medical services, construction, technical material and food supply; and suggestions for possible improvements of existing mechanisms;

Transformation Management

4) The modernization of the AFU by means of optimization of the management system;

5) The progress in executing the programme of reform of the AFU and other military formations, in particular the programmes of conversion to a contract system for completing personnel staffing;

Civil and Democratic Control

6) The legislative mechanism and practice of civilian control (as a separate chapter of the book);

7) The conclusions of reviews of the MOD and the General Staff by the Presidential Administration, the Cabinet of Ministers, the VR, the NSDC, and the Accounting Chamber;

8) The level of corruption and non-regulation behaviuor in the AFU (statistics and results of surveys showing the military’s and population’s perception of the prevalence of wrong-doing as well as information on prevention and punishment measures);

9) The justification of decisions by governmental bodies related to military matters or matters of law enforcement activities from the point of view of their compliance with the domestic and foreign policy as well as international obligations of Ukraine deriving from international treaties;

Personnel Management

10) The question of a thorough development of personnel, both military and civilian, in particular the balance between their needs as individuals and the interests of the Armed Forces;

11) The practice of resolving the problem of social and professional adaptation of service personnel who retired or will retire, and the provision of housing for the same;

Public Affairs

12) The results of sociological surveys of the level of society’s trust towards service personnel and its interest in the need to improve service personnel’s standard of living and increase the defence budget;

Equipment and Infrastructure Management

13) The issues relating to the conversion of former military property and the development and reform of the military-industrial complex;

14) The appropriation and sale of military property and privatization of companies managed by the MOD;

International Cooperation

15) The question of military, political-military and technical-military collaboration with other countries and international organizations, including on the matters of export and import of weaponry and military technology.

3. Recommendations for Improvement of the Style and Format of the “White Book”

Style and format of any publication determines ability of a target audience to find the necessary information and use it as needed. For this reason we think it would be important to improve the format and style of the White Book and propose the following:

• Study the efficacy of introducing various formats of the “White Book” oriented towards different target audiences (expert community, public in general, international community) or an electronic version of a single format which after every conclusion or evaluation would have links to the detailed information for an appropriate target group;
• Use more widely the format of supplements to the “White Book” which would illustrate separate narrowly defined aspects of the problem of reforming the AFU;
• Apply a systematical approach to the presentation of basic quantitative indicators, that characterize the state of development of the AFU, which would, in turn, facilitate a high quality analysis;
• Prepare – on the basis of the “White Book” – a compact booklet with a higher circulation, which would contain statistical data and indicators as well as charts (tables, diagrams, graphs) allowing comparisons of data over various time periods for the selected areas.