In the middle of last week, the President of the Republic of Moldova Maia Sandu presented the draft National Security Strategy (NSS) that “defines the dangers to the country’s security and the action directions proposed for strengthening national security and the security of each citizen” as the official press release said. The experts invited to IPN’s public debate “Country’s security: dangers, solutions, novelties” discussed how real and big the dangers to the country’s security and the citizens are at the current stage and how able the authorities and society are to cope with them.
Igor Boțan, the permanent expert of IPN’s project, explained that the National Security Strategy is a basic document for planning the development of the security system so as to organize the interaction between governmental organizations, public associations and organizations for protecting the national interests and ensuring the personal security, the security of society and the state. The NSS is based on the national interests, responds to threats and risks with an impact on national security, sets the objectives of the national security system, identifies means and ways for ensuring national security. The National Security Strategy is a long-term political and legal document that enables to adjust the national security policy to the internal and external developments and to identify the specific national security system segments that need to be reformed, to work out a realistic plan for doing reforms.
According to the expert, the NSS is usually based on the national security conception that is a system of ideas that shape the priorities of the state in the field of national security. State security implies the protection of sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the country, its constitutional regime, economic, technical-scientific and defensive potential, the legitimate rights and freedoms of the person against the informative and subversive activities of intelligence services and foreign organizations, against criminal attacks by groups or individuals. The policy to ensure national security is implemented by the supreme public authorities responsible for state security, namely: Parliament, the President of the Republic of Moldova, the Government and the Supreme Security Council. The security and defense bodies of the state are: the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Security and Intelligence Service, the State Guard and Protection Service, the Border Guard Service, the Customs Service, other public authorities. The Supreme Security Council is the mechanism for cooperating and coordinating the national security sector.
Lecturer at the Military Academy Natalia Albu, executive director of the Platform for Security and Defense Initiatives, said a strategic document must match the security environment in the state and address the weaknesses of the state. It should be synchronized with what is happening in the security environment and with the country’s security needs. That’s why the country’s security strategy that was adopted in October 2011 is outdated as the security environment cardinally changed since then, stating from the pandemic and ending with a war on the territory of the neighboring state. “Back in 2020-2021, discussions on the necessity of working out and adopting a new National Security Stagey were initiated. These discussions were mainly initiated by civil society and on the initiative of the Supreme Security Council. A number of rounds of debates involving the academia were held to discuss the method of designing the strategy as it is clear that the risks and threats are human and individual in character and the citizen is exposed to risks in crisis situations and the national security policy should be a preventive document,” stated Natalia Albu.
According to her, a commission was constituted last year to work out the National Security Stagey. A draft was proposed for debates shortly afterward. This stipulated that Moldova should be a credible player in the process of joining the EU as regards its strategic view. “This document formulates the strategic view, which is where the Republic of Moldova sees itself in the process of joining the EU, and this is the most important and special aspect. The consolidation of civil society’s view on the conviction that the European course is an important factor on the agenda of the national interest is the second important aspect. At national level, we didn’t have a document that would have clearly, expressly specified the national interest, except for the national defense strategy worked out in 2018. The national defense strategy that should derive from the national security strategy is actually much more advanced than the strategy of 2011,” stated Natalia Albu. She considers the context is now suitable to propose a national strategic document for discussions and to take into account the opinions of civil society, the academia and the citizens.
Asked why this strategy is proposed now, ex-Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Alexandru Flenchea, director of the Association “Initiative for Peace”, said that no matter what is done in politics, the question “why now?” will always be put. “The question is always valid as the moment is never suitable and it is always too late. Any thing should have been done earlier. The matter cannot be detached from the internal political context. Any new government tends to work out, to present sometimes and to approve with a different result the own view of what the national security of the Republic of Moldova is and, respectively, how the country’s security should be ensured. It is something normal as any new government wants to reflect somehow the political priorities of the given government in policy documents,” stated Alexandru Flenchea.
According to him, such documents are necessary primarily when major changes take place, when political forces with a view on the country’s future which is radically different from what was earlier come to power. “It is a logical step taken after about two years of government. New policy documents on national security or defense are proposed. The same happens now. The ruling party before the campaign and in the campaign came with a particular political platform, with particular announced priorities that are known before the campaigns prior to the presidential and parliamentary elections, respectively. It is normal to present policy documents to reflect these priorities after two years of government,” said the director of the Association “Initiative for Peace”.
The public debate entitled “Country’s security: dangers, solutions, novelties” was the 292nd installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
