October 31, 2010
Igor Tabak is a Croatian independent military analyst in Zagreb. Since the early 1990’s, he has written for the official magazines of the Croatian Ministry of Defense. In addition, since 2003 he has often commented on military and security issues for various national and regional media.
Ante Raic, a journalist with Croatian National Television and Balkanalysis.com editor in Zagreb, recently surveyed Mr Tabak to gain his insights on issues related to Croatia’s programme of defense reforms before joining NATO, public and media perceptions regarding the defense sector, politically-sensitive cases involving military procurement issues, and the overall main security threats facing the country today.
Croatia’s Defense Reforms: A Work in Progress?
Ante Raic: In the year 2000, Croatia started a big cycle of defense reforms. How far did we get?
Igor Tabak: Those reforms are of a cyclical nature. They started after the elections of 2000, and were done by 2006 or 2007- when we should have started the next cycle. It is important to note that this [second] round did not happen, and that this remains a big problem.
While the first round of reforms dealt with global problems and rough structural changes, a lot of more detailed questions remained unanswered (or at least were not answered thoroughly enough), as can easily be seen- we have a lot of retired generals acting strangely, and problems in enforcing the law there. While in our [country's] legal regulations we speak of two intelligence agencies, in practice we also have a third one, which we forgot to integrate fully- that is, a specialized department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that managed to keep some of its former independence, and is not mentioned in the law. Further, we formed the National Protection and Rescue Directorate as a somewhat independent body, with a voice of its own, but still left it connected budget-wise to the Ministry of the Interior. So, although they look or act as two separate entities, in reality they are not as separate as they should have been.
The defense sector saw a huge planning effort fall apart during the last two years, particularly concerning finances. The crisis was hard to avoid, but instead of attempting a revision, our planning effort stumbled into wholesale stagnation. This was especially visible with structural reform and downsizing efforts- concentrated on the armed forces, and somehow sidestepping the Ministry of Defense. The MoD broke all deadlines for its reorganization well before the economic crisis. The Croatian MoD, oversized before, remains even more so today.
Still, some small bits of second-round reform actually did happen. We enacted some measure of civilian oversight over the defense system; a parliamentary committee on defense was established, one that also involves outside expert members, appointed by public call, who are not members of the parliament but representatives of the general and specialized public. This system of defense committee organization is unique in this region. Even with those small changes happening, the reforms in general have stalled and it will probably take a new parliamentary election to get them back on track.
Igor Tabak is a Croatian independent military analyst in Zagreb. Since the early 1990’s, he has written for the official magazines of the Croatian Ministry of Defense. In addition, since 2003 he has often commented on military and security issues for various national and regional media.
Ante Raic, a journalist with Croatian National Television and Balkanalysis.com editor in Zagreb, recently surveyed Mr Tabak to gain his insights on issues related to Croatia’s programme of defense reforms before joining NATO, public and media perceptions regarding the defense sector, politically-sensitive cases involving military procurement issues, and the overall main security threats facing the country today.
Croatia’s Defense Reforms: A Work in Progress?
Ante Raic: In the year 2000, Croatia started a big cycle of defense reforms. How far did we get?
Igor Tabak: Those reforms are of a cyclical nature. They started after the elections of 2000, and were done by 2006 or 2007- when we should have started the next cycle. It is important to note that this [second] round did not happen, and that this remains a big problem.
While the first round of reforms dealt with global problems and rough structural changes, a lot of more detailed questions remained unanswered (or at least were not answered thoroughly enough), as can easily be seen- we have a lot of retired generals acting strangely, and problems in enforcing the law there. While in our [country's] legal regulations we speak of two intelligence agencies, in practice we also have a third one, which we forgot to integrate fully- that is, a specialized department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that managed to keep some of its former independence, and is not mentioned in the law. Further, we formed the National Protection and Rescue Directorate as a somewhat independent body, with a voice of its own, but still left it connected budget-wise to the Ministry of the Interior. So, although they look or act as two separate entities, in reality they are not as separate as they should have been.
The defense sector saw a huge planning effort fall apart during the last two years, particularly concerning finances. The crisis was hard to avoid, but instead of attempting a revision, our planning effort stumbled into wholesale stagnation. This was especially visible with structural reform and downsizing efforts- concentrated on the armed forces, and somehow sidestepping the Ministry of Defense. The MoD broke all deadlines for its reorganization well before the economic crisis. The Croatian MoD, oversized before, remains even more so today.
Still, some small bits of second-round reform actually did happen. We enacted some measure of civilian oversight over the defense system; a parliamentary committee on defense was established, one that also involves outside expert members, appointed by public call, who are not members of the parliament but representatives of the general and specialized public. This system of defense committee organization is unique in this region. Even with those small changes happening, the reforms in general have stalled and it will probably take a new parliamentary election to get them back on track.
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