Ebook: Theoretical and Technical Perspectives on Security Sector Governance from the Adriatic to the Caspian Sea

The State based on the Westphalian sovereignty is the foundation of the contemporary international system. However, in a time of failed states, globalization, military intervention justified on a humanitarian base, and increasingly relevant non-state actors, one can reasonably wonder: What is statehood? What affects statehood? And, what happens when a state comes up short?

This paper explores first the contemporary and historical literature defining statehood. The Montevideo Convention defines a full expression of statehood, but what of states that do not fulfill these requirements in either a practical or juridical manner? Theories of black states, para-states, quasi-states and black holes are briefly explored within this preliminary discussion of statehood. From this understanding of theoretical and normative statehood, the paper explores then the extent to which the requirements of statehood have been fulfilled in the Republic of Georgia since independence in December 1991. This analysis presents the challenges and implications of the Gamsakhurdia, Shevardnadze and Saakashvili administrations on Georgian statehood, as well as the particular challenges posed by de-Sovietisation, conflicts in Abkhaz, South Ossetian and Ajara, the Rose Revolution and the August 2008 War. This study contributes to our understanding of the complex security dynamics of the South Caucasus and, in a much broader sense, delivers general conclusions about the relationship between weak states and security in the international system. Theses conclusions are critical since other comparable situations can learn lessons from the Georgian case. Understanding of the challenges faced by relatively new states in consolidating elements of statehood will strengthen our understanding of emerging new states, and their potential to succeed in the international system.

The understanding of security has recently moved away from national security to include the consideration of a larger number of threats and additional objects of security. In parallel, changes occurred in governing, with growing importance of norms and rules coming from outside of the state and multi-actor participation in decision making and implementation. These trends are also increasingly found in the making and implantation of policies for the security sector, resulting in a number of different forms of security sector governance. Globalization and growing demands for participation and legitimization of a wider set of political actors increasingly seem to require more comprehensive approaches to security sector governance which include a range of relevant domestic actors and orientation towards regional and global norms. Security sector education should reflect these trends.

This chapter describes recent economic, security and political developments in the Western Balkans, focusing in particular on the role outsiders such as the European Union (EU) have played in influencing these developments. After surveying the region's major development since roughly 2005, the chapter briefly examines EU policy towards the region, suggesting the need for a more coherent and purposeful EU effort to steer the Western Balkans towards European integration.

This chapter considers main aspects of the general context for security sector reform in South East Europe and then the more specific challenges represented by intelligence and security agencies which were so central to authoritarian regimes. The contemporary challenges posed by developing intelligence networks and the implications of broader definitions of the security sector are considered. The possibilities of establishing democratic control and oversight of these agencies at various levels within and beyond the state are then discussed and it is concluded that this task is a never-ending process since the security sector may regress as well as progress.

The successful completion and implementation of security sector governance reform is often undermined by confusion and competition within and between the intergovernmental organisations undertaking the reform processes. It is further hampered by a want of true local ownership and the lack of meaningful monitoring and evaluation of the outcomes. The paper identifies areas of competition and confusion which dilute the efforts of intergovernmental organisations to create democratic and effective security sectors. It suggests ways that this situation might be improved and how SSG related tasks can be better planned and applied in the Western Balkans and elsewhere.

By its very nature, a book of this kind can only be selective in the issues it treats. Some generalizations are in order, however. For example, security is not understood comprehensively from one portion of the extended geographical region under consideration to the other. As a result, certain countries and institutions have been quicker to adapt than others. It is on these success stories that we focus in part 2 of this work. Another generalization that can be made is that there seems to be a form of cleavage developing within the region between the ruling elites and the constituents. On the constituents' side, however, a number of outlets are appearing to prevent the return of blanket authoritarianism, despite the frequent charges of corruption, nationalism and administrative mismanagement which the region is often burdened with.

Those outlets represent the technical and functional devices developed from the civil society or from specialised agencies dedicated to the promotion of democratic principles and the continuation of reform. On the one hand, the technical features of those outlets have a crucial advantage; they are de-politicised. This means that the ensuing development is less the result of a particular agenda than the logical conclusion of an objective administrative or technical process. How education responds to the demands of security sector reform, for instance, is a case in point. Initially, the need for technological improvement was not merely pursued for the sake of economies of scale, crucial to States with scarce resources. In addition to this, it was believed, rightly in our opinion, that technological development was also a path to deeper integration, to better participation in Western processes. Evidently, speaking the same technological language is a sine qua non for cooperation on projects. It does not follow, however, that the impetus was to forge the sort of cooperative processes that went beyond political boundaries. But in effect, the main character of technology is its objectivity. Technology cannot be political, and therefore the people who participate on technological project cease to be political as well. When we say “cease to be political”, the meaning inferred here is that of a process that has the greater good at heart, rather than the needs of a particular regime. Dr. Belloni's analysis of the situation in the Western Balkans is right, and the existence of personal frictions within the bureaucratic process of security sector reform is self-evident, as outlined by Welch.

However, there are powerful indicators that technological solutions go far in depoliticising issues, and forcing the state to meet its obligations towards its constituents. The fact that it is the constituents themselves (and not bureaucrats) who often pilot technological improvements is not surprising; they are producing the systems and services that will serve as pure public goods. For example, the Faculty of Occupational Safety at the University of Nis in Serbia is promoting a series of courses and programmes to help first responders and researchers to deal with emergencies which are understood very comprehensively under Serbian law. It is evident, in view of the recent past, that Serbia's political instances are keen on elevating natural and manmade emergencies to the level of consequences of armed conflict and terrorism. This creates a natural propensity for the government to declare states of emergencies more often than it would have to, keeping the security sector at high readiness status. Nevertheless, it is foreseeable that most emergencies that will occur in the near future will likely be of an accidental or natural origin, and not from a systematic use of violence against the state (in the shape of political terrorism or attack from another country). This has oriented the scope of research and development at the Faculty of Occupational Safety in Nis to cater to remediation. In turn, the likelihood that the emergency will not be militant in nature means that the high-readiness of the security sector will be applied for the benefit of the totality of the population. Furthermore, in case of a massive emergency where local resources are insufficient, the re-orientation of the duties of the security sector would make it easier for neighbouring countries to come to Serbia's help. As stated in the Nikolic article, the programmes aim at enabling students to apply scientific solutions - not political ones - to emergency management challenges.

Indeed, if politics is defined by the aphorism of “who gets what by whom” within a parochial context, then the technological solutions enable a more rational, less emotional and biased distribution of resources. In the second contribution from the Faculty of Occupational Safety at Nis University, the authors stress how the links between actors and resources demand impartial systems to identify, analyse and distribute support in emergency response. The fact that Serbia is following a worldwide trend is also a strong indicator of increasing integration with recognized best practices. The application of those best practices takes place outside the political environment, and the technological and scientific aspects of the emergency management curriculum and systems turn the focus away from politics. In that sense, students, analysts, first responders and eventually decision-makers will look at emergency management less as a feature of political activity and more as one of public administration. In turn, this would have favourable consequences on internal stability (because the State is then seen as fulfilling its function impartially), and on bureaucratic deontology. As Welch suggested in the preceding section, institutional friction and rivalry within the bureaucracy is an impediment to capacity building. The manner in which some countries of the Western Balkans have developed capacity remains largely a matter of academia for now, but it is a step in the right direction, insofar as it keeps the political at arms' length. The solutions and tools devised in research institutes such as geographic analysis software, knowledge management portals and virtual slibraries emerge from dedicated research institutes, not from political parties. The inherent rationality of those tools and processes provides a means of emancipation for the practitioners and for the societies they serve. Velizar Shalamanov's “serious gaming” systems allow Bulgaria to develop the solutions to emergencies that could have their source from anywhere in the greater Black Sea region and from South Eastern Europe. As a result, the training exposes the analysts and practitioners to the realities of complex emergencies. The Bulgarian educational system and model requires foreign contact which further expose its officers to the experience of foreign agencies. In part, this contact, as well as the economic constraints faced by all countries of the EU and NATO have led Bulgaria to adopt technological solutions that support its integration of Euro-Atlantic norms. For one, the conception of “security” now encompasses many more definitions than the mere obligation of “defence”. For Bulgaria, virtual libraries and knowledge management tools enable the variety of actors within Bulgarian civil society to learn, train and exchange on the variety of security challenges that the State now faces. These are the means through which Bulgaria has chosen to address the governance challenges alluded to by Welch.

Technological applications are the means whereby critical features of the totalitarian past are being eradicated. For instance, a totalitarian regime relies on the wisdom of a single individual who is thought mistake-free. While history and common sense demonstrated this to be fallacious, it does not detract from the fact that such regimes have triggered learned behaviours that are difficult to get rid of. Self-criticism is one of those behavioural traits. At the Baltic Defence College, education performance measurement is not a benefit to the delivery of security curriculum only; it is the proof to the audience and to the institution itself that the shortcomings and successes are dependent upon the competence of many actors. In terms of governance, not knowing how a programme is performing is equal to not caring where an agency or institution is going. It makes short shrift of the attitudes of the audience that the institution is supposed to serve. Therefore, the mere act of asking the question “how are we doing” is testament to the desire of integrating Euro-Atlantic methods of governance. It also enables the institution to bridge the gap between what it teaches and how it acts. Here also, the system of lecturer evaluation by the students and of student evaluation by the lecturers takes place anonymously using value-free technological and statistical tools. The results enable the oversight teams to identify shortcoming in such a way as to seek correctives to problems rather than to people. The issue of governance is sensitive, and appears through many articles in this part as a work perpetually in progress. For example, the Canadian system whereby procurement is undertaken brings deliberate emphasis on the ambiguity inherent in the term “civilian control” and political meddling in the security sector. In the case of the Sea King Saga, the bureaucracy is driven into an educational role through the process of democratic oversight of defence spending in a context where corruption is politically alleged. It is not altogether abnormal that it be so. Here the bureaucracy is determined to serve the country, as it must owing to legal statutes. However, a democracy being what it is, few members of Parliament have the time to explore academically their relationship with the bureaucracy, and quite conveniently suppose that it serves the ruling party. It is not so. No country has the answer as to what optimal, ethical governance is. What the Canadian example offers is a system whereby the decision for procurement is transferred almost exclusively to the bureaucracy, dividing responsibility among many institutions, dividing the process in many sub-processes where, granted, political interference is always possible, but authority is more generally distributed.

Although not a “technological” solution per se, it nevertheless proposes a system whereby predictability is inserted, and where the preferences of the few do not supersede the deontology of the bureaucracy which has a greater interest in applying its processes and self-imposed rules. Governance becomes a matter of public administration which relies heavily on the rule of law. This, most of all, is what is to be remembered from Labarre's contribution. It is not that this solution can be imposed as a model for the Balkans or the greater Black Sea, but that they obey a need determined from within the society, a need that has been translated into a functional apolitical system. In many ways, the Balkan countries represented in this part have presented solutions in answer to an objective need, rather than the express wishes of political constituencies. The solutions presented in part 2 are all instances where the political aspect is removed from decision situations that are supposed to benefit the public at large. The Canadian example reveals the same kind of political axe-grinding as seen in the Western Balkans or the wider Black Sea area. Although the level of animosity between opponents may vary, it does not change the fact that certain processes are deeply interesting to political actors because of the rent opportunities they represent. The functional application of solutions does not address a critical ingredient of democratic governance and security sector reform, however, which is the rule of law. The space lacks here to discuss this topic in detail. However, the advantage of functional and technological solutions to emergency management, procurement, and education serves to heighten public awareness as to these issues. They also help articulate the States' efforts towards the public rather than the benefit of the regime in place.

Security sector and governance reform continue in the Western Balkans and in the greater Black Sea area, and beyond. This process will never be completed and will forever be the subject of increasing perfectibility. For now, the technological and systematic solutions discussed here offer the reader a glance at processes that are politics- and value-free, but which nevertheless represent an important opportunity for awareness raising for the civil society and the security sector as to what their real duties towards the population is. The fact that the politicians may in some cases still be blind as to these needs does not detract from the fact that here, as in many other countries, the population is already light years ahead of its political elites in terms of philosophical and technological development.

The current challenges facing security sector governance in the region make the development and implementation of vertical enterprise knowledge portals with focus on security, security sector and information technology (IT) studies imperative. Along with becoming an indispensable tool for security and IT experts, such knowledge portals also possess a solid potential to serve as tools for education and improvement of the qualification in the field. The article contains an overview on our approach to this problem, based on the integrated use of three advanced IT tools: knowledge management portal (KMP), Computer Assisted Exercise (CAX) environment and virtual library/ documentation.

This paper considers an integrated environment for enhancing integrated security sector operations training (Basic low-cost Environment for Simulation and Training – BEST) and the challenges related to Security Sector Governance (SSG) in South East Europe (SEE) and the Wider Black Sea Area (WBSA). BEST was successfully implemented in the newly established Joint Training Simulation and Analysis Centre – Civil Security (JTSAC-CS) using the paradigm of serious gaming, e-learning and co-learning. JTSAC-CS capabilities in education and training via Computer Assisted Exercises (CAX) and Operational Analysis (OA) are presented in the context of BEST environment that also includes and quantitative measurement of the quality of training.

This paper examines Canadian parliamentary oversight of defence procurement by using the controversial replacement process of the Sea King ship-borne helicopters. The aim is to identify the effectiveness and degree of influence of parliamentary oversight process in defence procurement. It then provides courses of action for South Eastern Europe.

This article explores a method to reconcile student feedback for the learning activities and lecturing they received and the assessment of the students' performance by the teaching staff for the same activities, but in relation to the stated aims and learning levels. This requires the student and teaching staff to be aware of the learning objectives not only for planning purposes, but also for overall evaluation of education. This article shows the potential of this three way reconciliation, where the performance of the students can be matched with the learning levels and objectives, and the performance of the lecturing is also assessed by the students by the same standards.

The fast evolving geo-political environment at European level, which is being strongly influenced by the process of enlargement of today's European Union and NATO towards the East, poses new security challenges that need to be addressed within the curricula of agents dealing with the governance of the security sector. The consequent increase in mobility among people and goods considerably broadens the range of security threats. This is testified by the mounting attention being paid by both NATO and the European Community to the definition of specific security sector education frameworks which are providing the means for reforming education and training within the defence domain. However, besides dealing with legal, strategic and geopolitical issues, the new security education models should not disregard the significant advancements that science and technology have delivered in very many fields related to defence and homeland security and the great impact that these may have at the operational level and therefore for the overall security. In fact today's challenges clearly cannot be tackled only through judicial and legislative measures. Instead it requires a reform in the way security experts are trained and educated, embracing a multidisciplinary technological perspective. In this chapter we claim that the security sector governance can be greatly enhanced through the adoption, within the curricula of security operators at different levels, of new technologies capable of increasing the level of context awareness of the actors and, at the same time, which can deliver better response to unexpected events or crises whenever these occur. Starting from the aforementioned outlook, this chapter highlights the importance of educating the forthcoming generations of security experts to the use of geospatial technologies and in particular it discusses the importance being played within this context by the advent of the recent discipline of Geo-Visual Analytics (GVA). The chapter presents their use to the curricula of those engaged in security both within military and civilian educational institutions. The chapter presents how GVA can be beneficial both as enabling technology capable of supporting security operators in the aftermath of incidents or as simulation platforms to train operators to develop strategies and responses.

Professional education for working and living environmental security is observed in the paper as an important prerequisite for the establishment of general policy of security and improvement of the security sector both nationally and locally. Accordingly, the development of such professional education has been presented in the paper, as well as research activity at the Faculty of Occupational Safety in Niš, Serbia. In addition, the paper touches upon several future developmental directions of educational and research work in this field.

Emergencies are events which disturb regular operations of services and companies, endanger human lives, natural and material wealth (the environment), and represent a threat to stability (sustainability) of local, national, and global development. The analysis of emergency service response (to accidents, breakdowns, and natural disasters) in Serbia and worldwide indicates certain flaws, both in organisation and methodology of emergency response. Therefore, it is necessary to develop decision-making support systems founded on multimedia technology and education and training for emergency management. Emergency management systems have a set of features which distinguish them from classic management systems. This primarily refers to functional modes, organisational structure, type of information, and management goals and criteria. Therefore, the development of these systems should be based on IT which will enable their adequate, efficient, and effective work. In this paper, a systemic approach is promoted and the role of formal and informal education for emergency management is considered. We deem these considerations necessary in order to gain a more comprehensive view on education as an element of emergency management and on the possibilities that IT and inter-sectoral cooperation offer and open for acquiring, innovating, and disseminating knowledge in this field.