CIAO DATE: 04/05

The Role of Civilians in National Security Structures - The Bulgarian Experience

Abstract

The strengthening of the democratic and civilian control of the security sector has been an important policy issue on the agenda of the international community throughout the last decade. A key dimension in this respect is the role of civilians in the formulation and conduct of national security policy.

The transition from the security sector, which was built during the Warsaw Pact period, designed and controlled by Moscow, to a new type of system for national security capable of responding adequately to the new reality is a serious challenge to the post-communist societies. This new type of security sector have to be governed by the principles of democratic civilian control and are part of a larger international security system, where, in addition to national defence, they have to perform a lot of new tasks related to early warning, crisis prevention and management through different types of operations mostly in the international context with more and more integration between military and other elements of the security sector. There are different sets of criteria to highlight the transition of post-com.

Full Text (PDF, 24 pages, 86 KB)