This fourth round table is presided by Monsieur le Préfet Christian Decharrière, Assistant-Director of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale.

Faced with the new surge of conflicts in Africa, we must wonder, at the dawn of the 21st century, about the role of armed forces on the African continent. We must ask ourselves "why have armed forces in Africa ?". But also, how should we have them, that is, what missions should they fulfill and what are their functions within the contemporary context ?

In order to define the function devoted to armed forces, it would be wise to first identify the threats with which they are confronted.

The current threats in Africa are of several different types :

• A strong surge of internal conflicts resulting most often in the incapacity of the State to assume the functions sovereignty. The short-comings of the State are translated by problems of public insecurity which accompany the loss of social and cultural reference points. The violence of the State is echoed by violence against the State ;
• The prolongations of the scale of sub-regional internal conflicts : armed rebels taking refuge in neighbouring countries, we have displaced populations and the militarization of certain refugee camps. These phenomena are particularly visible in West Africa, Central Africa and East Africa ;
• The persistant threat of inter-State conflicts.

In this context, we can distinguish three functions which could be fulfilled by the armies :

• A political function : which has been a failure as illustrated by the unsuccessful results in different coups d'Etat and military regimes. The myth of the "redeeming soldier" has seen its day ;
• A social function : the failure of conscription faced with economic (lack of funding) and political (selective recruitment criteria) obstacles translates the short-comings of armies in this area ;
• an economic function : if in the past the experiments in civil service have shown their limitations, today, it is in the areas of security in development that armies must redeploy their economic function. The idea is to combine the efforts of defence and security thus insuring local security ; that of production sectors as well as that of the territory.

The second question we must ask is one concerning the means of adaptation of armed forces to this context. Three directions become apparent here :

• the direction of institutional reforms which must take into account the great disparities of status between the different countries ;
• The direction of political reforms which imposes a re-examination of the relations between army / power and army / society ;
• Lastly, the direction of partnership between civilian and military organizations which would authorize a new sharing of the tasks, even if defence must remain the reponsibility of the military.

"The Democratic Control of Armies in the PECO (Central and Eastern European Countries) " Mr. Rudolf Joo A Professor at Georges C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies after having taught at the University of Lyon 2 (France) and at the University of Economy of Budapest. He was the Hungarian Defence Secretary of State. He is the author of numerous books concerning the problems of international security, minorities and the democratic management of defence.

Since the beginning of the 90's, Hungary has seen the number of its neighboring States go from 5 to 8 and this has provoked deep geopolitical upset in the region, especially seeing the proximity of the Balkan war. There results a great interest for the search for real guarantees of security, in all forms of preventive diplomacy and peace-keeping operations.

But these external challenges are not the only ones the army faces today. The question of redefining the relations between civilians and the military within the society itself is primordial. Prior to 1990, the armed forces were characterized by an extreme politization which made their functioning both inefficient and antidemocratic.

The formal depolitization of the armed forces went very smoothly. A great effort was made to insure their unity, integrity and impartiality, but there is still a hazy area concerning the attribution of competencies. The control of the army still remains a political stake. Civilians are relatively few at the Defence Ministry and it appears necessary to restore the prestige of the armed forces.

Madame Réka Szemerkenyi Researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS; London), she was a consultant at the World Bank and at the economic Development Institute. She was also the First Assistant for International Relations to the Undersecretary of Defence of the Defence Ministry of Hungary. She is the author of several communications and publications.

An evaluation of the successes and the failures of the democratic reform of armies in the Eastern countries can center around 6 themes :

• The political aspects : the relations with the political world reamin a basis for promotion for the officers. Even though the formal ties with the communist party have disappeared, the informal ties subsist, especially with the older officers, and it sometimes goes so far as to create a passive resistance to change and even to the obstruction of the change process,
• The financial aspects : since the end of the 80's, there has been a net decrease int he percentage of the GNP allotted to military spending in all the Central and Eastern European countries with the exception of Poland,
• The administrative aspects : there persists a chronic deficit of civil expertise not only in the area of management but also in strategic planning,
• The training-related aspects : the training programs opened by the West to the Eastern European military are much closer to joint operational training missions that to real civil or strategic training,
• The public relations of armies : the prestige of the armed forces vary from country to country, but is, in general, diminishing. Military question are becoming a political "no man's land". Only new forms of utilization of the armed forces (notably peace-keeping operations) benefit from the explicit support of the public opinion,
• The structural aspects : the armed forces have seen both the reduction of their effectives as well as wide restructuration. Nevertheless, missions such as those of peace-keeping remain an exception to this trend.

In consequence, it would be useful to :

• Go from the joint (East-West) training of forces to veritable training actions,
• promote new relations between the military and civilians
• change the public image of the army from a financial burdon to a positive one by promoting its role as apeace-keeping instrument.

"The civil exploitation of the technological, scientific and logistic potential of armies" Mr. Luciano Caglioti Director of Strategic Projects at the National Center of Scientific Research of Italy.

The technological, scientific and logistic potential of armies can be utilized to implement peace within the framework of civilian society. In the south of the Mediterranean basin, for example, science and technology appear to be essential means to solve demographic, sanitary and ecological problems.

In the medical field, telemedicine is a future solution in the aid to civil populations. It is related on one hand to tele-assistance and on the other, by tele-diagnosis, which save the rural populations from having to flock to urban hospitals. Tele-assistance techniques are also used to bring aid to older persons.

In June of 1992, a conference uniting Israelis, Palestinians and Italians was held on the theme of "science in the service of peace".

This general subject allows us to widen the scope of action to other domains such as the environment, where the recourse to military techniques can be useful in the case of an ecological catastrophe of natural or anthropogenic causes. Military techniques can also be useful in the up-keep and perservation of historical heritages.

"The new role of the army in the consolidation of peace" Mr. Janusz Symonides Director of the Human Rights Division, of Democracy and Peace of the UNESCO. Doctor in international law and relations, he was professor and Deputy Rector at the Nicolas Copernic University, then professor at the University of Warsaw, member of the board and then co-president of the academic committee of the IEWSS. Lecturer at the Academy of International Law of the Hague, he is the author of almost 400 publications (human rights, international control, sea rights, environmental protection, international security).

The traditional mission of armies - border defence, maintaining public order, foreign interventions, definition of the international status of States - are rapidly changing :

• The positioning of States on the international scene today depends less on military power than on economic power,
• the mainatining of interior stability remains however intact,
• the international missions of armies are reinforced in a context of multiplication of illicit traffics (arms, drugs), the resurgence of piracy and slavery. Armies will undoubtedly fight more against organized crime in the future,
• Peace-keeping has rapidly developed since the end of the 80's. Peace- keeping missions have become more diverse (interposition, surveillance of cease-fires but also the enforcement of embargoes, mine disposal, disarmament of warring parties, protection of refugees and humanitarian aid).

Today, a certain number of questions remain unanswered :

• Can we use the military to fulfill missions of civilian nature ?
• Should we add the imposition of peace to traditional peace-keeping ? The UN seems, for the moment, badly prepared in the political and the technical senses to do so. The imposition of peace would undoubtedly be effectuated in close collaboration with regional organizations.
• Is a permanent United Nations Army a necessity ? To start with, the waiting force modules systems proposed by certain member-states would reinforce the operational effectiveness of the United Nations system.
• Should we give up the diversity of recruitement of peace-keeping forces ? Peace-keeping operations that use contingents coming from many different countries contitute veritable measures of trust and security because they give the militaries of different nationalities the opportunity to meet one another.
• How can we ensure the protection of civil populations ? The protection of human rights should be an essential preoccupation of peace-keeping forces.
• How can we contribute to the reconstitution of national democratic armies ? Peace-keeping forces can provide very useful support structures when dissident movements must be reintegrated into national forces.

Some of the other participants' comments and reactions on the fourth round table

• Mr. Hassine Fraj
  Chief of the Tunisian Bureau de Recherche au Ministère de la Défense

We must not forget that most of the African armies were trained in Western military schools, with Western officers and soldiers and are equipped by Western arms factories. What is the pedagogical message that the various other speakers wanted to express about these armies ?

Also, this symposium would appear to resemble alot of other seminars that weren't ever followed up.

• Mr. Raphaël Monsalve
  Centro Superior de Estudios de la Defensa Nacional, Spain

Can the experience of reintegration of the German army after reunification serve as a model for other European countries ?

• Mr. Rudolf Joo

The German case is very particular because of the reunification context, the preceding existence of the Bundeswehr and its financial possibilities. For Central European countries, the democratic transition of Spanish, Portuguese or Israeli armies is more pertinent.

• Mr. Larry Seaquist
  President of the Strategy Group, United States

The military has now understood the changing nature of conflicts and it is more the civilians who haven't necessarily grasped these evolutions.

Also, active military men, as well as retired ones, usually have technical and managerial expertise of the highest sort to offer.

Finally, I'd like to bring attention to a paradox : the participants have mentioned the growing repulsion of the public opinion at the idea of losing their soldiers but at the same time, they tolerate the existence of other extremely violent actions without really reacting to them.

• Mr. Lounés Bourémane
  Director of the Algerian Institut National d'Etudes de Stratégie Globale

I would like to mention a historical and geographic reminder. In antiquity, Africa first designated the region surrounding Carthage. That is why we mustn't forget that diverse actions in what constituted Africa at that time did not only take place in sub-Saharan Africa.

Secondly, we should reestablish the truth about the positive role of armies without necessarily using the Western paradigm as a backdrop. In this sense, the case of the Popular Algerian Army is full of information : it did effectively contribute largely to the development of Algeria all the while refusing to be directly implicated in the political process. It also participated in peace-keeping operations such as that of the Sahel, which did not receive major media coverage, but were nevertheless very effective. This leads us to relativize the pretentious exemplifying of the advanced countries.

Finally, even if we are talking about partial insecurities, we mustn't ignore that the greatest threats remain global threats - whether they are due to nuclear factors or to classic over-arming. In these areas, the control of arms acquisitions shouldn't be limited to exports but should also include internal productions.

• Mr. Nureldin Satti
  Ambassader of Sudan to the UNESCO

Armies often find themselves confronted with responsibilities that can go as far as seizing the power. Sometimes even to a power-taking culture. Whereas, it is often civilians and politicians who are responsible for these situations : we need to first educate these categories of society.

More specifically, concerning the relationship between civilians and the military, I would like to shed light on the phenomenon of militarization of civilians which leads to confusion about roles and gives rise to instability.

What to do in these conditions ? I think we need to engage a dialogue between intellectuals and the military whose relations have long been characterized by mutual contempt.

• Mr. Vasile Jirjea
  Joint Director of the Collège de Défense Nationale Roumain

In the heart of the military context in the Central and Eastern European countries, there exists a Rumanian specificity. Already with the Warsaw Pact, Rumania was in a particular situation as it wasn't integrated in the military structures of the Pact - there were no Soviet troops or manoeuvres on its territory. Plus, Rumania's politics are characterized by a tradition of independence, or at least of autonomy : Rumania never approved the Afghan invasion of Czechoslovakia.

In relation to what was said by the Spanish representative, Rumania has long observed the different experiences in democratic control of the army by civilians and it is in light of foreign experiences that the Rumanian army began to effectuate its restructurations and completed them last year.

Particularly, a National College of Defence has been created, largely inspired by the French or American models. It is made up of about 75% civilians.

• Colonel Barak Ben Zur
  Chief Instructor, Israeli National Defence College

The Pakistani representative mentioned non-conventional capacities. It is certain that the convergence of non-conventional capacities and extremist elements is very dangerous.

Besides this remark, I would like to make a proposal : why don't the participants of this symposium sign a declaration in which they commit to continue this debate in the future ?

The introduction of foreign models in Africa showed that in the military domain and well as the political and constitutional domains, these models' applications are limited.

I uphold the analysis of the Nigerian representative concerning the often destabilizing influence of security and defence missions, confusion which is clearly the responsibility of the political class.

I would also like to clarify what I wanted to say when I spoke about the partnership between army and society. African populations tried for a long time to protect themselves from each other and this, in response to the failure of the State in the area. If this has been possible in the social and psychological domaines, it has not been so in the political domain. It is in this sense that a partnership with the army is necessary.

Mr. Rudolf Joo

In what measure are the experiences of Central and Eastern European countries applicable elsewhere ? It is the question of their utility to other countries which is being asked : and not that of presupposing the existence of an ideal Western model.

Mr. Janusz Symodises (answer)

I would simply like to remind you that the UNESCO has been cooperating with armed forces in the domain of the protection of cultural heritage for a very long time.