Umstrittene Schweizer Sicherheitspolitik ... - ETH Zürich

Ausland
Diskussion
Schneeberger Roger: You said that one of the Army’s tasks is to aid the
civil powers. With regard to that task, I would like to know where the
interface between civil and military powers is. When does the Army intervene?
Who takes the decision to intervene? Does the decision depend on
how great the danger is? Does it depend on the civil powers’ capacities?
Montgomery Rory: A decision to use the Army on any given occasion
would be a matter for the Government. There are regular contacts
between the national police force and the Army. However, in practice,
such aid has not been necessary in recent years. The Army played a role,
as I said, during the Northern Ireland Troubles, for example in helping
to escort cash transfers between banks or by working in the intelligence
area against terrorism. There were also some major strikes in the 1970s
in which the Army was called in to assist, either to maintain public
transport or power supply, but such occasions have not arisen for a long
time. Neither has there been a riot or a demonstration which required
the Army to be involved.
Schneeberger Roger: How many police forces do you have in Ireland?
Montgomery Rory: We have around 14,000 police officers.
Greminger Thomas: It is very interesting for us that, in spite of its neutrality,
your country contributes very substantially and to an impressive
degree to multilateral peace operations. The concept that this is a contribution
to European and global security and part of good European and
global citizenship is, for intellectuals like us, plausible and very convincing.
However, the question is how to communicate something like that
to politicians and to the general public. How do you communicate for
instance that contributing to a multilateral operation in Chad matters to
security? Conveying this message to large sections of the population has
been a huge challenge in Switzerland. We have not even managed to convey
this message to politicians who decide on matters of security policy.
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