 |
Informing Decision: Research Capacity for the SCG Ministry of Defence
Jefferson Institute |
|
The Serbia & Montenegro Ministry of Defence is slowly turning the political rhetoric of reform and civilian control of the armed forces into real steps. Sustained reform is unlikely without Ministry capacity to plan and react strategically - and strategic behavior demands informed decision makers. Yet, there is very little capacity in the Ministry for applied policy research and analysis to inform decision-making, and what capacity does exist is highly centralized, poorly managed, and ultimately of little operational value.
This is a two-sided problem in Serbia & Montenegro (SCG):
1) There are several non-ministry centers of research and analysis in security studies but they are universally starved of resources. Few will pay for their services, so they remain small and often develop dependant relationships with international sources of support. This is not a reliable source of funding, nor does it facilitate relationship building with sustainable sources of funding in local state security sector institutions.
2) The Ministry of Defence wants faster better strategic research and analysis and is ready in principle to pay for it, but does not know how to handle the process of managing applied policy research: 1) setting research priorities; 2) tendering that research; 3) facilitating the research process; and 4) assuring the product is delivered to the operational level where it is most useful.
The Ministry of Defence asked the Jefferson Institute for assistance in answering a few basic questions:
1) What is the existing capacity of the Ministry for managing applied policy research?
2) What is the local capacity for security sector applied policy research (local faculties, institutes, and the like)?
3) What are the mechanisms used by countries similar to SCG for successfully resolving the analysis gap in policy planning?
4) What is an action plan for SCG to resolve the analysis gap? |
|
 |
|
|
