Duration: September – November 2009
Donor: Geneva Center For Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (Albania)
Partners: Ministry of Defense (MoD) and General Staff of Armed Forces
Project Description: The project’s main goal was to build a national agenda for reform and education for consolidated and normative civil-military relations. More particularly its objectives included (a) the re-evaluation of the state of affairs and increasing awareness about norms and standards to enhance civil-military relations, (b) encouraging an informed debate and recommendations to align democratic civilian control with Euro-Atlantic practices.
For this purpose, IDM’s Centre for European and Security Affairs (CESA) prepared a comprehensive research so as to provide “food for thoughts” to national stakeholders through implementing and presenting the main findings of three surveys with (1) members of the parliamentary commission on national security, (2) personnel of MoD and armed forces, and another survey with (3) citizens at the national level.
The two day national conference, which was organized on 20-21 November 2009, gathered key actors and representatives of Albanian institutions, such as experts and former and present leaders of MoD, general staff of the armed forces, the Parliamentary Commission on National Security, MPs, the Defence Academy etc.). A significant contribution to this conference has been offered through the research work of the Security Management Network, established by IDM in early 2009.
The conference outcomes and the research work carried out in this context were included in a final publication (“Democratic Control and Civil-Military Relations: Still an Unfinished Business”).