the process of security sector reform - ISAC Fund

István Gyarmati MILITARY REFORMS OF THE 1990s: LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE SUCCESSES AND FAILURES
István Gyarmati
Chairman of the Board, Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration
and Democracy, Budapest
MILITARY REFORMS OF THE 1990S:
LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE
SUCCESSES AND FAILURES
An overview of findings and recommendations from studies commissioned on
the subject: “Defence Reforms of the 1990s: Lessons Learned”
BACKGROUND: THE LEGACY OF THE COLD WAR
In 1991 an historic era ended: the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Warsaw Treaty
Organization was dissolved. The Cold War was over, clearly won by the West.
Commonly accepted views suggest that this was a war without a shot fired, that
military might did not play a significant role in the victory of democracy over
Communism. This is, however, not entirely true. On the one hand, more than two
hundred local wars were fought during the Cold War, many of them being proxy
wars, where the two opposing coalitions found proxies to advance their cause in
remote or less remote parts of the world.
The most important front, however, was the one in Europe. Thousands of tanks,
combat aircraft, artillery pieces, armored combat vehicles and millions of soldiers
faced each other, ready to move on a few hours notice. Hundreds of billions of
dollars were spent to create and maintain these forces on both sides. The biggest
concentration of force was created along the borderlines of the two alliances:
along the inner-German border (do we still remember that?) and along the borders
between other countries of the Warsaw Pact and NATO. Nuclear weapons and
other weapons of mass destruction were considered legitimate means to fight
the war, allowing for hundreds of millions of casualties to be suffered in Europe
and the United States. Even the extinction of human life was on Earth being a
realistic danger did not deter military and political planners to consider these
options as valid ones.
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