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Triggering Critical Mass: Identifying the Factors for a Successful Defence Transformation

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14702436.2011.553103

1743-9698

Laura Cleary,

Global Peace and Security Dynamics

Abstract Since the publication of the UK's Strategic Defence Review in 1998, the Ministry of Defence has sought to make a contribution to conflict prevention and post‐conflict recovery through a series of educational programmes, the aim of which has been to promote good governance and management of defence so that both national and global security are assured. Although these programmes are generally well received by the recipients, there has been little attempt on the part of the UK government to assess systematically what has been achieved and how. This paper asks the question: what does it take to generate a 'critical mass' for reform? Notes 1 Hillary Rodham Clinton, 'Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Nominee for Secretary of State, Senate Foreign Relations Committee' (13 January 2009) accessed on 2 July 2009. 2 CSIS Commission on Smart Power, A Smarter, More Secure America (Washington, DC: CSIS 2007) p. 6. 3 Ibid. p. 7. 4 Statement made by an MOD Desk Officer in conversation with the author, 30 June 2009. On 7 July 2009, in a ministerial statement from the Secretary of State for Defence, the Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth MP, it was announced that one of the issues to be examined as part of the forthcoming defence review would be how defence can make a contribution to soft power. 5 David Miliband, 'After Mumbai, Beyond the War on Terror' (15 January 2009) accessed on 2 July 2009; 'The War on Terror was wrong', The Guardian (15 January 2009) accessed on 2 July 2009. 6 Edmund Conway and Angela Monaghan, 'UK national debt to surpass £2 trillion', The Daily Telegraph (20 February 2009) accessed on 2 July 2009. 7 Richard Norton Taylor, 'Britain cannot afford £5bn aircraft carriers, says former forces chief, The Guardian (1 July 2009) p. 7; Simon Jenkins, 'As soldiers die, MOD is stockpiling for the Cold War', The Guardian (1 July 2009) p. 27. 8 UK Ministry of Defence, Defence Diplomacy (London: Crown Copyright, 3/1999). 9 UK Ministry of Defence, Adaptability and Partnership: Issues for the Strategic Defence Review (London: Crown Copyright, 2/2010) pp. 19, 28, 30, 33. 10 Joseph S. Nye Jr, 'The decline of America's soft power', Foreign Affairs (May/June 2004). 11 Joseph S. Nye, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York, NY: Public Affairs 2004) p. 116; Rt Hon John Hutton, former UK Secretary of Defence, speech delivered at the Institute for Public Policy (27 April 2009) accessed on 24 June 2009. 12 UK Ministry of Defence (note 8). 13 UK Ministry of Defence, Delivering Security in a Modern World, the Defence White Paper Supporting Essay No. 4 (Norwich: TSO, 12/2003), p. 12. 14 Ibid. p. 13; interview with Campbell McCafferty, formerly AD2 Policy Planning, 21 June 2005; interview with Cdr Simon Turnbull, formerly PolPlanning 9 DefDip, 26 May 2005. 15 UK Ministry of Defence (note 13) p. 13. 16 Hutton (note 11). 17 In Whitehall there is a great deal of rhetoric about the benefits of joined‐up government and the comprehensive approach. The reality on the ground tends to be rather different. Although there is evidence of harmonious working relationships between the representatives of the three ministries, in some of the diplomatic outposts all too frequently there are stories of Ambassadors and Heads of DfID missions disputing who is in fact the senior diplomatic representative or of DAs and DfID staff failing to reach agreement on the prioritization of activities. 18 Department for International Development (DfID), Eliminating World Poverty: Our Common Future (London: DfID 2009) accessed on 8 July 2009. Although DfID recognizes the need to ensure security so that development can occur, the emphasis placed by the organization is on access to justice rather than any other form of security. 19 Correspondence with Major Steven Bowkett, Chief of Staff BMATT WA, 22 April 2009. 20 During a session at the House of Commons Defence Committee the question was put to Labour and Conservative Party members as to whether there should be a defence review. At the time of the meeting, April 2009, the Conservative Party had only begun to advocate a defence review, whereas the Labour Party appeared resistant. That changed on 7 July 2009 when the government announced that a defence review, the first in 11 years, would take place, but would not report until after the next general election; Kim Sengupta, 'Review will shape future of Britain's armed forces', The Independent (8 July 2009) accessed on 8 July 2009. 21 Closures of posts in France and Ghana were done without consultation with the host nation and under orders of secrecy, which limited the ability of those affected to come up with contingency plans; interview with Col Mark Theobald, Commander BMATT West Africa, 20 May 2009; interview with Lt Col Will Mellows, UK Defence Attaché to Ghana, 21 May 2009; correspondence with Major Steven Bowkett, Chief of Staff BMATT WA, 28 April 2009. 22 A number of DAs in Africa have expressed concern that a reduction in funding for conflict prevention today may well result in a requirement for increased expenditure on military deployments and stabilization initiatives in the near future. There is a sense that the MOD is robbing Peter to pay Paul. 23 Interview with Stephen Glover, UK Special Defence Advisor to Ukraine, 6 July 2009; also Teri McConville, 'Lessons from diplomacy', paper presented at the 2009 IUS International Biennial Conference on Armed Forces and Society, October 2009. 24 Interview with Cdr Simon Turnbull, formerly PolPlanning 9 DefDip, 26 May 2005. 25 The author is the academic leader for the MDD/MDWSC programme at Cranfield University at the Defence Academy. Distinguished alumni include several defence attachés to the UK (Russia, Serbia, Trinidad and Tobago), defence attachés to other countries (Ethiopia and the African Union, Egypt, Kenya), military attachés to the United Nations (Yemen, Nigeria), national representatives to NATO (Armenia, Hungary, Czech Republic), the Chiefs of Army Staff (Ghana, Gambia), Chief of the Armed Forces (Lebanon), and Defence Ministers (BiH). 26 J'Kayode Fayemi, 'Entrenched militarism and the future of democracy in Nigeria', in Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt (eds), Political Armies: The Military and Nation Building in the Age of Democracy (London: Zed 2002). 27 UK Ministry of Defence, 'International defence co‐operation. Paper No. 1: Defence diplomacy', Defence Issues . 28 In the science of physics, critical mass refers to the minimum mass of fissionable material that can sustain a chain reaction. 29 Philip Ball, Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another (London: Arrow 2004). 30 Cranfield University is contracted to provide educational services to the Defence Academy's College of Management and Technology (DA‐CMT). Since 2000 the university has provided an MSc in Global Security and a series of short courses originally entitled Managing Defence in a Democracy, now Managing Defence in the Wider Security Context, in support of the UK MOD's Defence Diplomacy Mission. As of February 2010 Cranfield had over 2,500 alumni from these programmes representing 134 countries. 31 In May 2009 the author had discussions with representatives of the US defence section in Ghana, the Ghanaian National Security Coordinator, the Commandant and Deputy Commandant of the Ghana Armed Forces Command, and Staff College and officers of varying ranks within the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF). All expressed puzzlement over the closure of BMATT WA and the general reduction in support and funding to the GAF. 32 Interview with Col Harnet Johannes (EDF), 26 February 2009. 33 Interview with Gen. Samora Yenus (CDS EDF), 23 September 2009. 34 McConville (note 23). 35 Interview with Peter Owusu‐Sekyere, 6 July 2009. 36 Rebecca Schiff, 'Civil–military relations reconsidered: a theory of concordance', Armed Force and Society 22/1 (Fall 1995). Schiff has recently published a book on the subject of concordance theory: The Military and Domestic Politics: A Concordance Theory of Civil–Military Relations (Abingdon: Cass Military Studies 2009). 37 IPPR, Shared Responsibilities: A National Security Strategy for the United Kingdom (London: IPPR 2009). 38 Although frequently under threat and assuming different guises, UK support to defence education was continuously maintained from 1957 to 2009; survey completed by Major Steven Bowkett, COS BMATT, 17 June 2009. 39 Ibid. 40 Interview conducted with Col Mark Theobald, formerly Commander BMATT WA, 20 May 2009. 41 This view was uniformly expressed by the Commandant and Deputy Commandants of GAFCSC, by current and past students of GAFCSC, by the National Security Coordinator and his deputy, and by academics who teach at GAFCSC. All interviews took place in May 2009. 42 In response to a Parliamentary Question tabled by the Rt Hon Keith Simpson, MP, the Secretary of Defence, the Rt Hon Bob Ainsworth, stated that 'It has always been our Government's long‐term goal to enable the Staff College and Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana to become self‐supporting with a commensurate reduction in the UK's direct assistance. Prioritisation of effort has required this process to be accelerated'; Hansard (23 April 2009) . The Ghanaians deny they were informed of that intent. 43 Interview with Maj. Gen N C Carl Coleman (Retd, Ghana Armed Forces), May 2005; interview with Lt Col Steen Clarke (Retd), former UK DA to Ghana, 7 July 2005. 44 Survey completed by Col Jeremy Ellis, UK DA to Nepal, 5 April 2009; interview conducted with Stephen Glover, UK SDA to Ukraine, 6 July 2009. The requirement to build and maintain relationships has also been recognized within the Defence Green Paper (note 9) p. 28. 45 Interview with Lt Col Will Mellows, UK DA to Ghana, 21 May 2009. 46 Interview conducted with Lt Col Steen Clarke, former DA to Ghana, 7 July 2005. 47 Ibid. 48 Ibid. 49 Interview with Lt Col Emmanuel Kotia (GAF), 22 May 2009; survey completed by Lt Col Shantosh Ballave Poudyal (NA), 5 April 2009; survey completed by Maj. Prabin B Khadka (NA), 6 April 2009. 50 Interview with Peter Owusu‐Sekyere, 6 July 2009; interview with Professor Vladimir Antwi‐Danso, 21 May 2009. A number of NA officers have made these types of comments either within surveys or in personal discussions. Political reforms in Nepal are not yet sufficiently advanced for any of those officers to wish to be named. 51 David C. Gompert, Olga Oliker and Anga Timilsina, Clean, Lean and Able: A Strategy for Defence Development (Santa Monica, CA: RAND 2004). 52 I first made this argument at a 2005 IUS conference paper, 'Soldiers–scholars, teachers–diplomats: the targets and outcomes of the UK Defence Diplomacy Mission'. This theme is picked up by Teri McConville in her paper 'Lessons from diplomacy', presented at the 2009 IUS International Biennial Conference on Armed Forces and Society, October 2009, and in Roger Darby's paper to the same conference, 'The provision of educational programmes in security cooperation: is situational awareness key to success? Moving towards the Third Space'. 53 Survey completed by Angus Morris, then SSDAT advisor, 17 October 2005. 54 Comment made during DA Training held at the Defence Academy, September 2009. 55 Interview with Gen. Nii Carl Coleman (Retd, GAF), May 2005. Coleman has suggested that the UK is Ghana's preferred partner in defence and security sector reform; however, there is a sense within Ghana that the UK approaches some of these issues in a piecemeal fashion and has difficulty in sustaining its interest on any one project for very long. 56 Comment made by Col. Davit Tonoyan (Armenian MOD), 3 December 2009. 57 Meeting held with the Deputy Commander of the MDF, 23 November 2006. 58 Interview with Gen. Samora Yenus, 23 September 2009; interview with Brig. Gen. Gebremichael Beyene, 23 September 2009. 59 Interview conducted with Lt Col Emmanuel Kotia, 22 May 2009; survey completed by Lt Col Shantosh Poudyal, 5 April 2009. 60 Survey completed by Col Jeremy Ellis, 5 April 2009; survey completed by Brig. Sherry, UK DA to Pakistan, 20 April 2009; interview conducted with Stephen Glover, UK SDA to Ukraine, 6 July 2009. 61 Interview conducted with Lt Col Will Mellows, UK DA to Ghana 2007–2010, 21 May 2009; interview with Lt Col Steen Clarke (Retd), former UK DA to Ghana, 7 July 2005. 62 Such attitudes are prevalent in Ghana, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. 63 Glover (note 60); Ellis (note 60); Samora (note 33); survey completed by Col Adjetey Annan, 28 July 2005; 64 One former student, a major in an East European Intelligence Service, spoke of how he had attempted to implement new management practices following a course in the UK. His subordinates initially greeted the changes with suspicion, as did his superiors. The subordinates were eventually won round; the superiors were not, and made his life far more difficult because he was viewed as a threat. 65 Each of the ministries has its preferred service providers. The MOD tends to favour King's College London and Cranfield University, the FCO prefers Birmingham University, and DfID is associated with Bradford University. 66 Francesco Mancini, In Good Company? The Role of Business in Security Sector Reform (London: Demos 2005). 67 It is anticipated that the US strategy of 'smart power' will generate an explosion in the number of private contractors in the field of SSR. It has been announced that BAE Systems, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, traditionally the producers of munitions and weapons platforms, will become engaged in the delivery of soft power initiatives in order to meet the government's new requirements. As the UK government retreats from various outposts, British‐based security contractors are seeking to fill the gap; August Cole, 'US defence firms try 'soft power', Wall Street Journal (3 March 2009) p. 6. 68 The following references are simply a sample: Samora (note 33) and Annan (note 63); Helen Afi Gadzekpo, Director of Administration for the Civil Service Association in Ghana, comments made on 12 August 2005; Ibrahim Wiredu, Head of Radio News for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, comments made on 12 August 2005; Poudyal (note 49); Khadka (note 49); discussions held with Col Gezu Shiferaw in Addis Ababa, 13 May 2005; comments by Brig R. M. D. Ratnayake made during an address to the Defence Governance and Management course held in Sri Lanka, February 2005. 69 Anne Aldis, Capturing Defence Diplomacy Experience. Working Paper (Sandhurst: CSRC 2003); Mellows (note 21). 70 The appointment of a British Civil Advisor to the GMOD succeeded in empowering the Chief Director for only a time. No structural changes to the organization occurred because there was no political will. In Serbia past SDAs have been viewed as spies rather than as mentors. 71 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 'The Conduct of Life', in Conduct of Life and Other Essays (London: J. M. Dent 1908), as quoted in Ball (note 29) p. 253. 72 UK Ministry of Defence's Defence Concepts and Doctrine Centre, Global Strategic Trends – Out to 2040, 4th edn (London: Crown Copyright 1/2010). 73 Department for International Development (DfID), White Paper: Eliminating World Poverty: Building Our Common Future (London: Crown Copyright 2009) p. 84. The figure cited dates from a 2004 paper by Chambers, 'Spending to save: an analysis of the cost effectiveness of conflict prevention'. That conference paper can be down loaded from www.csae.ox.ac.uk 74 Ball (note 29) p. 408. 75 Ibid. p. 373. 76 Ibid. p. 264. 77 Ibid. p. 367. 78 Mellows (note 21); Sherry (note 60); Ellis (note 44).