WGA 2020 | Austria

Introduction

Question:
Briefly reflect about when and why a WGA has/hasn’t been introduced in your country. In what ways does a WGA in your country reflect the country’s specificities (e.g. in relation to its institutional and constitutional set-up)?

Austria Expert

Christian Strohal

Senior Diplomat, Austria

Christian Strohal is a senior Austrian diplomat. After having served from 2013 to 2016 as Austria’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, he was nominated to be Special Representative for Austria’s OSCE Chairmanship in 2017. Since retiring, he has been a Senior Adviser to the current Slovak OSCE Chair-in Office and a non-resident Fellow at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD), which is affiliated with Princeton University. From 2008 to 2013, Christian represented Austria at the UN Office, the Conference on Disarmament and other international organisations in Geneva. From 2003 to 2008, he was Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the OSCE. Between 2007 and 2012, he also served as an alternate Member of the Management Board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. Earlier functions include Ambassador for the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights; Director for Human Rights at Austria’s Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs; and Ambassador to Luxembourg. Christian was educated in Vienna, London and Geneva and holds a Dr.iur. from the University of Vienna. He has also held lecturing positions at various institutions and published a number of articles.

Ursula Werther-Pietsch

Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, Vienna

Ursula Werther-Pietsch works in Austria’s Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, served as Senior Visiting Fellow at the National Defence Academy, and is one of the founders of Austria’s 3C approach. She is Professor of International Law and International Relations and teaches at various academic institutions, including the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, the National Defence Academy and the Bundeswehr University Munich. Prior to that, she was Head of Unit at the Bureau of the Legal Adviser and the Constitutional Service at the Federal Chancellery. Before entering into public service, she was an Assistant at the universities of Graz and Vienna. Ursula is an Adviser to the master’s degree programme of the Academic Forum for Foreign Policy and a Member of the Scientific Commission of the Ministry of Defence. She is founder of the journal Juristische Ausbildung und Praxis and has published widely, including the books Human Rights and Inclusive Societies (2014), International Crisis and Conflict Management (2017), Women as Drivers for Peace (2019), and The Collective Security System of the UN (forthcoming). Ursula studied Law, Architecture and French, and holds a PhD in Law from the University of Graz.

Markus Gauster

Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management (IFK), National Defence Academy, Vienna

Markus Gauster has been a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management (IFK) of Austria’s National Defence Academy since 2004. He holds a master’s degree in Law and a doctorate in Political Science from the universities of Graz and Vienna, and earned a certificate in Broadcast Journalism from the Danube University Krems. He was also active in the private sector and is a Reserve Officer in the Austrian Armed Forces. His research areas include conflict transformation in Afghanistan, civil-military interaction in peace operations, and innovative concepts for international crisis management (e.g. whole-of-nation approaches for coherent action in situations of conflict and fragility). Gauster undertook fact-finding missions in Afghanistan and its strategic environment, including as a long-term Election Observer for the European Union. He has written various articles and publications, and is a member of the International Society of Military Sciences as well as of the executive board of the Vienna-based Austria-Afghanistan Society.

Hans Lampalzer

Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management (IFK), National Defence Academy, Vienna

Colonel Hans Lampalzer currently works at the Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management (IFK) of Austria’s National Defence Academy in Vienna. After graduating from the Theresian Military Academy in 1991, he held various posts in the Austrian Armed Forces in addition to studying Translation Studies and Political Science at the University of Vienna. He also earned a doctorate in Intervention Research from the University of Klagenfurt, where his studies focused on the links between intercultural questions and security. Lampalzer has lectured to military and civilian audiences at, among others, the European Security and Defence College, the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, the FHS St. Gallen University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland, and several Austrian universities. He served at the Kosovo Force Headquarters in 2002 and 2003, has experience as an ODIHR Election Observer, and worked part-time from 2008 to 2015 for the Austrian Verification Center, especially in Russia and Belarus. From 2016 to 2017, he was Head of the OSCE High-Level Planning Group under the German and Austrian chairmanship. From May 2018 to March 2019, he served as a Liaison Officer to Austria’s Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs. In this position, in the second half of 2018, he served as a National Delegate to the Friends of the Presidency Group for Countering Hybrid Threats while Austria held the presidency of the Council of the European Union. His current research focuses on security-sector reform, and he is also responsible for the implementation of the Ministry of Defence’s contribution to the OSCE Armenia Co-operation Programme.

Austria
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Austria has a long-standing tradition of contributing to international peacekeeping, diplomatic engagement, civilian crisis management, humanitarian aid and development cooperation. The Austrian whole-of-government approach (WGA) model has been particularly inspired by some 60 years of participating in peacekeeping operations, efforts aimed at promoting effective multilateralism, and the principle of international solidarity. By being an actively involved honest broker and by deepening a holistic approach over the years, Austria has developed a special understanding of joint action in external engagement as well as a collaborative spirit and readiness to mediate. Additional orientation has been provided via Austria’s active membership in international organisations, especially the OSCE, NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme, and the UN (one of whose headquarters is based in Vienna). Furthermore, Austria’s membership in the EU has been particularly crucial in many regards and has certainly contributed o intensifying its focus on both political priorities and operational collaboration. In addition, Austria has been seeking to actively contribute to the development of the EU’s policies and operational capacities.

Altogether, ensuring an effective multilateralism is one of the priorities of Austria’s foreign and security policies; this, by its very nature, fosters coherence among Austrian stakeholders. Given the current threats emerging from the erosion of the global rules-based order, this has never been truer than today. For these reasons, Austria plays an active role in different multilateral fora and has formal coordination/cooperation procedures in place at all levels at the UN, the OSCE, the NATO-PfP and the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC).

Thematic frameworks of current relevance to Austria’s external engagement are the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development UN Security Council resolutions; the EU Global Strategy (EUGS), its implementation and EU CSDP decisions; the NATO-PfP agenda; and the European Consensus on Development. This multilateral approach is also inspired by the recognition of the steadily increasing interconnectedness of external and internal security. For example, Austria’s 2013 security strategy states (BKA 2013: 4): “Comprehensive security policy means that external and internal aspects of security are inextricably interlinked, as are civil and military aspects.”

Over the years, crisis response has been shaped primarily by events in Austria’s geographic neighbourhood, such as political upheavals in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968, the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and the so-called refugee or migration crisis of 2015. Security concerns regarding Czech and Slovak nuclear plants close to Austria’s borders are another constant concern.

At the international level, one part of acting upon this recognition of interconnectedness between internal and external security has been the emphasis on complex operations against the backdrop of comprehensive policy programmes. A WGA has been a consequence. At the national level, a WGA is de facto built into all government decisions, as they are taken collectively, usually in the weekly cabinet (Council of Minister) meetings. In addition, a number of other legal and institutional provisions ensure that Austria’s constitutional environment is respected, including its federal nature and its status of neutrality.

A WGA is also increasingly and explicitly being adopted in governmental programmes. The 2013 Austrian Security Strategy (ibid.) constitutes the cornerstone of Austria’s overarching comprehensive approach, which is officially called the Comprehensive Security Provision (Umfassende Sicherheitsvorsorge). It postulates that modern security policy and efforts to respond to external conflicts and crises have become a cross-cutting issue that stands on an equal footing with other policy fields, and that “[s]ecurity decisions at both national and international level must be based on a comprehensive assessment of the situation by all of the stakeholders and a common understanding of the situation derived from this information” (ibid.: 10). On this basis, there is a growing understanding that policy coherence and existing interfaces need to be based on a comprehensive and integrated approach, allowing for active participation and implementation in a spirit of solidarity.

Government activities are based on an agreed governmental programme. These provide an overarching framework for the concrete division of competences as laid down in a specific law (i.e. the Federal Ministries Act (National Council 1986)) and the government’s concrete work. A comprehensive approach to crises at the local and international levels has been increasingly reflected in government programmes.

Overall, a whole-of-government and, indeed, a whole-of-nation approach have emerged over the years in Austria’s political priorities, and their implementation has been inspired and facilitated by active participation in international multilateral fora and through EU membership. While representing a good balance between administrative professionalism and political pragmatism, this approach would still benefit from being made more systematic (as is discussed in greater detail below).

Austria Report