Bence Nemeth

Militarisation of cooperation against mass migration – the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC)

ABSTRACT As a result of the migration crisis of 2015–2016, the management of mass migration and border control became militarised in Central Europe, and this process has also reshaped the dynamics of multinational defence cooperation in the region. Accordingly, while the so-called Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC) was created by Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2010 to support NATO and EU capability development projects via defence cooperation, after the migration crisis it became the major Central European forum for military cooperation against irregular mass migration. Although many defence officials in the region are not necessarily enthusiastic about this development, the Central European political environment and also practical defence considerations pushed the defence ministries of CEDC countries towards deeper cooperation on border control, as well as better coordination with ministries of interior affairs on the national and the regional levels.

Making defense planning meaningful: the evolution of strategic guidance in the Hungarian Ministry of Defense

ABSTRACT Hungary, a former communist state, adapted a Western-style defense planning system during the 1990s and 2000s. Although on the surface the elements of this planning system were similar to the planning programming budgeting system (PPBS) developed by the US Department of Defense, strategic guidance for defense planning has not been properly developed until recently. Thus, albeit PPBS-based defense plans were developed in the Hungarian Ministry of Defense (Hungarian MoD) regularly, they lacked both an expression of clear priorities and strategic focus. This article delineates the evolution of strategic guidance in the Hungarian MoD concentrating on current developments, and introduces the newly elaborated analytical concepts and tools, which helped to create needed strategic guidance in Hungary.

Allies that count: junior partners in coalition warfare

have been welcome. The chapter on Peru offers an especially interesting case study. In the decade before the First World War, its navy was the recipient of extensive advice and assistance from France, a country with which it shared no common history and few economic ties, but whose culture it held in particularly high regard. Jorge Ortiz-Sotelo provides the reasons for the PeruvianFrench cooperation, and an analysis of the success of the venture. This is a fascinating story that also explains how soft power was applied by a leading European nation with an aspirant navy at the other side of the world. Another great piece is, for example, Xiaobing Li’s excellent chapter on Soviet naval assistance to the fledgeling Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy from 1949 to 1960, which gives a particularly useful perspective on an under-researched aspect of Cold War naval history. However, despite the thought-provoking sections and the book’s claim that it is the “only book” on naval advising, the editors may have cast their net a bit widely, as the golden thread running through the chapters is not always easy to find. The reader might have the feeling that the book provides unconnected examples of where one navy engaged in capacity building with another one without pulling it all together into a comprehensive whole. For example, the readers might find themselves questioning the half page display of a Thanksgiving menu for a meal served in nineteenth-century China; that particular chapter is more interesting biography than insightful analysis of naval advising. Likewise, the highly theoretical chapter on the application of Adoption Capacity Theory to the doctrine of modernising navies may read a little too much like a doctoral thesis research, even if it does open up new and novel avenues of enquiry. Thus, a Conclusion to finally stitch the disparate strands together would have lifted the entire book to the next level. Overall, though, there is much good in this book. It provides relevant research regarding a significant but an under-researched topic and depending on a reader’s individual interests, parts of or the whole book offers a rich resource on naval advising and assisting.