Aspects of participation of the civil society in maintaining national security and defense

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Aspects of participation of the civil society in maintaining national security and defense

Naplyokov Yuriy Vasilievich Doctor of Philosophy in Public Administration, Associate Professor, Head of NATO Planning and Staff Procedures Department, National University of Defense of Ukraine

Abstract

The article reflects the aspects of civil society participation in ensuring national security and defense in times of crisis in a complex and dynamic environment. The Clausewitz's concept of interaction between the government, the armed forces and the population in contemporary conditions is revised. It is determined that in times of crisis, there is a need for more active involvement of civil society in the full cycle of development of the state as a certain social system with the help of public administration instruments. Civilian control under the security sector with the participation of civil society should fully include assistance in the development and refinement of the national security and defense strategy, its effective implementation and monitoring of the results of its implementation.

Participation of civil society through public administration institutions in the development of the social system helps to implement changes and adapt it to the new environment. It also helps to reconsider the goals, identify acceptable means and ways to balance them with risk in development and implementation of national security and defense strategy and plans.

It is established that, depending on the state of the social system and the environment, civic considerations serve as a certain indicator of the use of instruments of state power, which makes the process of ensuring national security and defense flexible and natural.

Considering the state as an open system, it is determined that the state authorities provide convergent thinking that should close the system in time to the extent necessary to protect it from undesirable influences and direct it to achieve the established goals, while civil society generates divergent thinking to open the system for adaptation in order to maintain its functionality and competitiveness in changing conditions. Effective cooperation between the state authorities and civil society should be based on the concept of “whole of government.”

Keywords: civil society, national security and defense, public administration, civil control, strategy, instruments of state power, thinking.

Анотація

Аспекти участі громадянського суспільства у забезпеченні національної безпеки і оборони

Напльоков Юрій Васильович доктор філософії з публічного управління та адміністрування, доцент, начальник кафедри планування та штабних процедур НАТО, Національний університет оборони України

В статті відображено аспекти участі громадянського суспільства у забезпеченні національної безпеки і оборони під час кризи в умовах складного та динамічного середовища.

Переглянуто концепцію К. Клаузевіца щодо взаємодії між урядом, збройними силами та населенням в сучасних умовах. Визначено, що в умовах кризи існує потреба у більш активному залученні громадянського суспільства до повного циклу розвитку держави як певної соціальної системи за допомогою інструментів публічного управління. Цивільний контроль над сектором безпеки за участю громадянського суспільства повинен в повній мірі включати сприяння розробці та уточненню стратегії національної безпеки та оборони, її дієве впровадження та контроль результатів її реалізації.

Участь громадянського суспільства через інститути публічного управління у розвитку соціальної системи допомагає впровадженню змін та її адаптації до нового середовища. Це також сприяє перегляду цілей, визначенню приємних засобів та шляхів з метою їх балансування з ризиком під час розробки і виконання стратегії та планів щодо забезпечення національної безпеки та оборони.

Встановлено, що відповідно до стану соціальної системи та середовища громадянські міркування служать певним індикатором застосування інструментів державної влади, що робить процес забезпечення національної безпеки і оборони гнучким і природним.

Розглядаючи державу як відкриту систему, визначено, що державна влада забезпечує конвергентне мислення яке повинно вчасно закривати систему в необхідному ступені для її захисту від небажаних впливів та направлення на досягнення встановлених цілей, в той час як громадянське суспільство генерує дивергентне мислення, щоб відкривати систему для адаптації з метою підтримання її функціональності та конкурентоспроможності в змінних умовах. Ефективна співпраці між державною владою і громадянським суспільством має ґрунтуватись на концепції “цілісного уряду”.

Ключові слова: громадянське суспільство, національна безпека і оборона, публічне управління, цивільний контроль, стратегія, інструменти державної влади, мислення.

Target setting

In a complex and dynamic environment providing the security and defense of the state, as a social system, requires participation of civil society not only in ensuring civilian control over the security sector, but also its participation in the full cycle of social system development.

Analysis of recent researches and publications

The analysis of the issue of civil society participation in the control of state power in the field of security and defense is presented in the works of scholars such as: H. Sytnyk, T. Bielska, O. Parkhomenko-Kutsevil, P. Vorona, P. Pantev, V. Ratchev, Eden Cole, Philip Fleury and Simon Lunn. At the same time, these works highlight only certain aspects of cooperation between civil society (CS) and the military, but the study of the comprehensive approach of CS participation to ensure security and defense in the cycle of social system development has not been fully considered.

The purpose of the article is to justify statement that ensuring national security and defense in conditions of changeable and dynamic environment requires active CS participation in a full cycle of the security and defense process.

The statement of basic material

A key problem of civil-military relations is that “one of society's institutions, the armed forces, is given a monopoly on the use of a large range of instruments of lethal force in order to protect the interests, external and internal, of that society” [1, p. 7]. The issue of regulation of application of the military instrument of state power may have a paradoxical character. Participation of the CS in decision-making to deal with this paradox can facilitate balancing the framework of ends, ways, means and risk to implement a security and defense strategy successfully through proper application of military means.

A state, as a social system (system), develops in a certain environment through interconnected changes of its three main parts, such as 1) organizational, 2) mental (spiritual and political) and 3) information and communication [2, p. 10]. In the democratic society this process is based on public management. Active, influential and developed CS contributes to building an open and progressive society where citizens can participate in policy-making and solving social problems [3].

Internal changes of the system due to the development of society's needs and changes of the exterior environment require a timely response of the system to them to save its functionality and achieve desired goals. The response can be reflected in shaping of the environment by the system or adapting the system to it or a combining both approaches in a certain proportion.

The complexity of the system and the environment does not allow for template development presented by established rules and official documents. The SA and the CS provides convergent and divergent thinking correspondently. Cooperation between the SA and the CS generates a certain proportion of convergent-divergent thinking that should make the system open, adaptable and protected at the same time in conditions of complex and dynamic environment. This proportion depends on the level of crisis and the level of equilibrium between the system and the environment, which can be determined by a coefficient of dynamic equilibrium (Keq). This coefficient “defines a degree of equilibrium between the system and the environment in a certain moment and also illustrate system openness, adaptability and effectiveness [4, p. 8].”

The state develops through implementation its strategy that is “about how nations use the power available to them to exercise control over people, places, things and events to achieve objectives in accordance with their national interests and policies” [5, p. V]. It is possible to consider “strategy as a way of thinking and acting in order to survive among others through maintaining, securing and promoting national interests. The strategy can be considered as a game (competition) of interests of different actors who can be notionally divided in allies, partners, neutral and enemies. This game is endless, flexible and may have changeable rules. The actors are dynamic in their roles and behavior.

The policy and strategy formulation process is intensely political and influenced by many interests and groups. This process can depend on politics of regime, religion, ideology and culture, geography and economic factors. The strategic task is to keep previous and current advantages, get new benefits and minimize loses in competition with others.”

The strategy formulation framework (fig. 1) includes key concepts such as national purpose, national interests, national policy, strategy and national instruments of power. From this model ends, ways, means and risk (EWMR) have to be balanced. It can provide successful achievement of the desired ends that are also changeable and can be considered from the position that “the object in war is a better state of peace - even if only from your own point of view” [6, p. 338]. Balancing EWMR may require CS participation to review ends, propose appropriate means and way from its own perspective.

Fig.1. Strategy formulation framework Source: Alan G. Stolberg [7, p. 6].

The national purpose is derived from strategic culture (enduring values, beliefs, ethics) and it influences the interests and aims of a state. National interests are what a state determines is important, based on its national values and within the context of the challenges and opportunities present in the international system, impact policy, strategy, and state actions.

National policy provides broad guidance and articulates national interests in the context of the strategic environment; national policy provides the focus for strategy formulation. Policy is guidance developed and articulated as a result of a political process and decision.

“Strategy is the art of controlling and utilizing the resources of a nation - or of a coalition of nations - including its armed forces to the end that its vital interests shall be effectively promoted and secured against enemies, actual, potential, or merely presumed. The highest type of strategy - sometimes called `grand strategy' - is that which so integrates the policies and armaments of the nation that the resort to war is either rendered unnecessary or is undertaken with the maximum chance of victory” [8].

Strategy serves to policy through prioritized ends (objectives) links ways (approaches) and means (resources) to plan actions to achieve the ends in a given environment. The best strategies are iterative and have feedback loops in order to help update the strategy based on changes in the strategic environment and lessons learned that should be provided by the CS.

In many cases power considered as means, the strength or capacity that provides the “ability to influence the behavior of other actors in accordance with one's own objectives” [9, p. 128]. National instruments of power are Diplomatic, Information, Military and Economic (DIME) [5, p. II-5] that can present a certain combination of means fulfills ways to achieve national objectives/ends in support of national interests.

“Power is the measure of a relationship” [10, p. 164]. Combination of means can vary to accomplish different tasks. The political-strategic decision-making aim is to determine the most suitable combination of means in the given environment to achieve desired ends. The role of decision-makers is to balance means (DIME) and identify a place of the “military” instrument of power.

“There are subtle characteristics of power that render its use in the national strategic formulation process more art than science” [11, p. 145]. Application of power in the context of means has a purpose to balance EWMR in the best possible way to achieve desired ends in the framework of possible permissible risk. Understanding the environment, its actors, own side, judgment is central to apply the instruments of power properly.

The purpose of planning is to develop ways by a proper use of means to achieve ends. Ways can be developed based on strategic culture, ethical issues of application of power and civil-military relations in the context of the role of military leaders in strategy making (fig. 1). The essence of planning is in proper arrangement of EWM to establish a new equilibrium, as a state of peace, between the system and operational environment. Political, military-strategic, operational and tactical levels of planning should be based on CS feedback.

According to Liddell Hart “the aim of strategy must be to bring about the battle under the most advantageous circumstances” [6, p. 324]. Maintaining a dynamic equilibrium between the state and the environment decreases loses by creating a balance between means which directs strategy to “the perfection of strategy” [6, p. 324] to achieve a desired end. Furthermore, the notion of system adaptation supports the statement that “strategy has not to overcome resistance.. .Its purpose is to diminish the possibility of resistance” [6, p. 323]. Resistance decreases when the system corresponds to the environment or they are adapted to each other. Ideally, they should be always in conditions of mutual equilibrium.

CS participation can facilitate making wise decisions to develop and implement the strategy and plans. According to M. Musashi, “the way of strategy is the way of nature. When you appreciate the power of nature, knowing the rhythm of any situation, you will be able to hit the enemy naturally and strike naturally” [12, p. 44]. The SA is ready to shape the environment and save an existing system structure when the CS prefers system adaptation that is considered as natural, logic and supported by the Sun Tzu philosophy of achieving desired goals through adaptation [13]. An operational approach in planning includes combination of adaptation and shaping by application of proper means and ways to balance the system.

The state security and defense strategy is supported by the military strategy that utilizes the military instrument of national power to support accomplishing political objectives of the national strategy through planning on the military- strategic, operational and tactical levels.

The national power, used to achieve a desired political objective, can be considered as multiplication of a state force by will of people. C. von Clausewitz proposed a trinity of three “magnets” such as the people, the commander and his army, and the government [14, p. 89] (fig. 2). He highlighted that “'the passions that are to be kindled in war must already be inherent in the people; the scope which the play of courage and talent will enjoy in the realm of probability and chance depends on the particular character of the commander and the army; but the political aims are the business of government alone” [14, p. 89].

Fig. 2 A functional process of “magnets”

Source: created by the author based on the “Remarkable Trinity” [14].

The army presents force instrument (capacity) and chance, population has passion and “will” when the government formulates political objectives and policy. The government develops policy and strategy to satisfy needs of the society. The army provides defense and security by using military and nonmilitary means. People provides feedback for all activities. The task is to maintain “a balance between these three tendencies, like an object suspended between three magnets” [14, p. 89].

Absence of communication, mutual understanding and control between these “magnets” can make the state unable to achieve desired objectives. Cooperation between the SA (government), the CS (people) and the army in a crisis situation is crucial to balance EWMR by a proper application of DIME instruments of power. It can define the strategy and its implementation. However, features of the contemporary complex and dynamic environment generate some features of developing and maintaining modern strategy.

Colin Gray noted that “the real strategic challenges posed by, first, industrial age mass warfare and, second, nuclear weapons” can make the relevance of the book “On War” by C. von Clausewitz to future conflict purportedly dangerous irrelevant [15, p. 79]. There are also additional concerns that can influence effective strategy development and its implementation such as: 1) strategic culture has an archetypal nature that influences political decision-making and resists to system change in the new environment; 2) environmental changes may require balancing EWMR through reviewing believes, values, principles that define desired strategic objectives and the end state and 3) under informational and scenario influence the CS can make wrong judgment and biased decisions [16, p. 16].

Fig.3. “Trinity ” in the state decision-making Source: created by the author.

The concerns above force creating a new approach to “the trinity” to develop and implement the strategy successfully. It requires more active involvement of the CS, applying critical thinking, taking prudent risk to make the system survivable and competitive in the contemporary complex and dynamic environment.

The trinity of three “magnets” should work as a self-regulated system in which input, output and feedback manage it to achieve desired objectives. Three “magnets” influence each other and present an entire whole with constant communication, common language, culture and objectives. “The trinity” regulates the war as a process and defines a DIME application that should balance EWMR taking into account interior and exterior changes (fig. 3).

In crisis the CS should actively participate in decision making to: 1) establish situation awareness and situation understanding; 2) clarify desired objectives, analyze the mission; 3) facilitate developing an approach to deal with a problem and 4) provide feedback of decision implementation. Also, CS can facilitate reviewing mental models to improve decision making in the new environment.

DIME instruments can be applied based on different combination of “soft” and “hard” power (tab. 1). Deviation of the system from a point of its stability provides energy to restore it again. A critical state of the system, when it loses its shape and functionality, can force applying “hard” power in more degree rather than “soft” one. The CS can facilitate making wise decisions on application of “soft” and “hard” power in the DIME framework by taking in account ethical considerations and possible second and third order effects.

Table 1. Soft” and “hard” types of DIME application L71