Modernizing Military Organizations and Political Control in Central Europe

The public policy issues of modernizing public agencies in Central Europe are nowhere more pressing than in the process of modernizing militaries. The leaders of central Europe – Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – plan to deploy smaller, more professional forces equipped with advanced weapons and support systems, changing their organizations accordingly. This paper argues that the political and organizational circumstances roughly common to Central European countries make such modernization highly problematical for effective civilian policy in crises. Advanced technologies can compound the normal problems of civilian ministerial control by altering modernizing military organizations in unexpected ways. The more intricate, critical and expensive the machines, the more organizational effects they induce. Even in minor crises, military leaders will probably want to move to heightened states of readiness to be sure the machines are in place and functional. Under these circumstances, there is greater potential for each otherwise noisy but survivable crisis to escalate through regrettable military guidance and destabilizing military actions, with or without full civilian understanding.