Civil-Military Relations and Democratic Control of the Security Sector

International Instruments in the Process of Transition to Democratic Civilian Control
Participation in arms control, non-proliferation, and confidence and security building measures.
Bulgaria is among the 66 member states of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva,
which to this day remains the sole negotiating forum for multilateral disarmament. In
similar vein, Bulgaria is a signatory to all major multilateral instruments in the area of arms
control and disarmament. The latter form the cornerstone of today’s non-proliferation regime
in the field of nuclear, chemical, biological and conventional weapons. At the same time,
however, we are favoring the comprehensive and integrated approach to apply all non-proliferation
measures at global, regional and sub-regional level. Bulgaria’s practical approach
towards WMD non-proliferation is also warranted by the country’s stance in anti-terrorist
campaign. Thus WMD non-proliferation has been recognized as a major underpinning of the
global efforts to fight terrorism by reducing the risk of terrorist entities to gain access to
WMD and their means of delivery.
International Military education and training. During the last decade Bulgaria was one of the
major beneficiaries from the international support to officers’ education and training, provided
by the Western countries. Today, opportunities for foreign officers to receive education
in Bulgarian military colleges are provided on a bi-lateral basis as a form of exchange.
Defense diplomacy needs to be further developed as one of the main and continuous
peacetime activities in support of foreign and security policy objectives aimed to maintain peace,
establish mutual trust, develop co-operation and enhance stability and security in the region.
Chapter 29
The OSCE Code of Conduct and Civil-Military Relations.
The Code and International Law
The international perspective of democratic control of the security sector has its international
legal aspect, 1 too. While international law – the Charter of the United Nations and the existing
international legal treaties, conventions and agreements – does not provide for or even mention
the democratic control of the armed forces (DCAF), the imperative international legal principle of
refraining from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence
of any state has some reference to DCAF as one of the indispensable elements of stability and
security. DCAF has also a logical linkage with the international legal principle of settling international
disputes by peaceful means in a way that peace and security are not endangered. The
obligation to assist the UN and refrain from assisting any state against which the United Nations
is taking preventive or enforcement actions has also a certain reference to the different elements
of DCAF.
However, it would be an overstatement that DCAF stems legally from these imperative international
legal principles. They may provide with a certain argument the need to elaborate on
1 Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern
Europe, South America and Post-Communist Europe (Baltimore & London, The Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1996); Paul Latawski, A Normative Framework for Democratic Control of Armed Forces, in: One
Europe or Several? Working Paper 09/00, A. Cottey, T. Edmunds, A. Forster (eds.), p. 3-4.
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