WGA 2020 | Slovakia | Policies Developed

Policies Developed

Question:
Discuss both explicitly formulated WGA policies and more implicit references to a WGA in your country. You may, for example, describe and assess the scope and quality of official or semi-official policies or discuss the country’s obligations under international and EU agreements.

Slovakia Expert

Tomas Valasek

Member of Parliament and Chair EU Affairs, National Council of the Slovak Republic

Tomas Valasek is Member of the Slovakian Parliament and Chair of EU Affairs. Beforehand he served as Director of Carnegie Europe in Brussels, where his research focused on security and defence, transatlantic relations and Europe’s Eastern Neighbourhood. Previously, Tomas served as the Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to NATO for nearly four years. Before that, he was President of the Central European Policy Institute in Bratislava (2012–2013), Director of Foreign Policy and Defence at the Centre for European Reform in London (2007–2012), and Founder and Director of the Brussels office of the World Security Institute (2002–2006). Between 2006 and 2007, he served as Acting Political Director and Head of the Security and Defence Policy Division of the Slovak Ministry of Defence. Tomas is the author of numerous articles in journals and newspapers, including the International Herald Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times. He has advised the Slovak ministers of defence and foreign affairs, the UK House of Lords, and the Group of Experts on the new NATO Strategic Concept.

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There are no explicitly formulated WGA policy documents in Slovakia. The closest the country comes to this is in the form of the National Security Strategy of 2005 (National Council of the Slovak Republic 2005b), but even its guidance is cursory and somewhat incongruous. The strategy lists the armed forces and foreign service as the main security tools, adding that police, fire-brigade and other forces are also very important. However, it is clear from the context that the ‘security’ in question here is internal security rather than crisis management abroad. Elsewhere, the document states that in managing “failing states”, Slovakia will also deploy development aid and will seek to mobilise civil society, as well. Although this is admittedly more in line with mainstream WGA thinking, the reference is cursory and the strategy does not establish any mechanism for implementation.

The 2017 provisional update of the 2005 Security Strategy (Government of the Slovak Republic 2017) provides fresh details on which fields of action for EU crisis management missions Slovakia prioritises (e.g. building resilience in the European neighbourhood, preventing state failure and upholding responsibility to protect), but without specifying the means for accomplishing these goals or calling for a WGA in deploying those means. Incidentally, the 2017 update of the strategy received cabinet approval but stalled in the parliament, although it is technically binding on the current government. Furthermore, the 2005 Defence Strategy (National Council of the Slovak Republic 2005a) mentions the need for a comprehensive approach to crisis management in general, but without explaining whether and how this applies to Slovakia’s contributions to such missions.

In addition to the aforementioned strategies, Slovakia has a law on the books that mandates inter-agency coordination when civilian experts are deployed abroad (National Council of the Slovak Republic 2011). The law also establishes a coordination council composed of representatives of the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Interior, Finance and Defence. However, rather than to create a WGA effect, the council’s mandate is merely to “exchange information, agree on modalities of the deployment of civilian experts, review their reports and agree on the financing of their deployment”. Strangely, there is no formal requirement on the books for inter-agency coordination regarding military deployments which would mirror the one that applies to the deployment of civilian experts.

While Slovakia has no overall strategy/concept document for a ‘comprehensive approach’ or WGA as such, a potentially similar document (i.e. a security system concept) is currently in the drafting stage. Its purpose is to foster a better WGA mindset on security issues. However, it appears to predominantly focus on crises within the country’s borders rather than those abroad. What’s more, at the time of writing (October 2019), the concept had not been passed yet and elections for a new government had not been held yet. In any case, the draft’s fate in the next government is uncertain.

Slovakia Report