Conditions of Military Multinationality the Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin

SOZIALWISSENSCHAFTLICHES INSTITUT DER BUNDESWEHR Band FORUM International Cahier 24 Volume Sven Bernhard Gareis Ulrich vom Hagen Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut der Bundeswehr Per Bach Torben Andreasen Ivan Doulgerof Institut for Miltœrpsykologi, Forsvarsakademiet Adam Kolodziejczyk Mariusz Wachowicz Wojskowe Biuro Badan Socjologicznych Conditions of Military Multinationality The Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin Report of the Trinational Research Team Strausberg Copenhagen Warsaw July 2003 Opinions expressed are solely those of the authors. Die Verantwortung für den Inhalt liegt bei den Autoren. Copyright by Sozialwissenschaftliches SOWI 2003 Institut der Bundeswehr All rights reserved Prötzeler Chaussee 20 Alle Rechte vorbehalten 15344 Strausberg ISSN 0177-7599 Tel.: 03341/58-1801 English Lector: Lindsay Cohn Fax: 03341/58-1802 Printed by: www.sowi-bundeswehr.de Wehrbereichsverwaltung Ost Contents Preface 7 1 The Multinational Corps Northeast as a Research 9 Subject 1.1 The Background of the Establishment of the Corps 10 and the Motives of the Participating Nations 1.2 Organisational Principles and Structure of the 15 MNC NE 1.3 Tasks of the Multinational Corps Northeast 22 2 Research on Military Multinationality 25 2.1 Military Co-operation 25 2.2 Horizontal Multinational Co-operation 26 2.3 Integrated Military Multinationality 28 2.3.1 The German-French Brigade 29 2.3.2 The German-Netherlands Corps 31 2.4 Current Research Situation 35 3 The MNC NE Project: Research Design, 37 Hypotheses and Guiding Questions 3.1 Research Design 39 3.2 The Composition of the Tri-national Research Team 43 3.3 Methods and Instruments 45 5 3.4 Hypotheses and Guiding Questions 51 4 Findings and Results 57 4.1 Purposes and Tasks 58 4.2 National conditions 69 4.3 Intercultural conditions 75 4.4 Leadership 87 4.5 Communication and Co-operation 102 4.6 Cohesion and Organisational Commitment 117 4.7 Social Structure of the HQ and Social Life in the 136 Szczecin Garrison 5 Conclusions and Recommendations 147 6 Literature and Documents 151 Appendices 161 6 Preface NATO’s Command and Headquarters organization was always char- acterized by the integrated cooperation between soldiers from all countries of the Alliance. Compared with this principle most multinational structures on the level of military units have developed in Europe only since the 1990s. But within about one decade military multinationality became one of the most important strategies for European states to match new military tasks and requirements while simultaneously reducing the size of their forces. Furthermore, in the process of NATO-enlargement as well as in the framework of various international peace support missions the par- ticular significance of military multinationality became evident for the growing integration of old, new and future allies. Today multinational military bodies and units are an important symbol for an unifying Europe. Whilst the creation of multinational structures developed dynamically during the 1990s, research on this issue is still at the beginning. In the field of military sociology and psychology there have been some studies on precise definition of all forms of multinational cooperation. Other projects focused on mutual perceptions of soldiers working in multinational units thus providing a valuable basis for further research. Our study on the Multinational Corps Northeast (MNC NE) in Szcze- cin/Poland takes a more comprehensive approach: For the first time the complex interaction between Danes, Germans and Poles within a common Headquarters was analyzed under consideration of all rele- vant internal and external framework conditions. As a result some theoretical and practical consequences and recommendations for the further development of military multinationality could be deduced. This survey was made possible because we succeeded to establish an international and interdisciplinary research team comprising members of the Institute for Military Psychology (Denmark), the Bundeswehr Institute of Social Sciences (Germany) and the Military Office for 7 Sociological Research (Poland). Together with the MNC NE we cre- ated and maintained a stable cooperation during a research period of nearly two years. Although our study opens a comprehensive view on our object by using a variety of methods and approaches it is still an explorative one. Military multinationality as a research field is still in need of theoretical and empirical development. So our report wants to encour- age follow-up research and at the same time to show the chances and challenges for the organization of multinational surveys. Sven Bernhard Gareis Strausberg Ulrich vom Hagen Per Bach Copenhagen Torben Andreasen Ivan Doulgerof Adam Kolodziejczyk Warsaw Mariusz Wachowicz 8 1 The Multinational Corps Northeast as a Research Subject On September 18, 1999, the Multinational Corps Northeast (MNC NE) – which is maintained in common by Denmark, Germany and Poland – was officially commissioned by Poland’s president Aleksander Kwasniewski, at its headquarters’ location in Szczecin in the Northwest of Poland. The formation of this tri-national corps con- tinued a trend: since the early 1990s, the land forces of numerous European NATO member states have been following the example of their Navies and Air Forces, which had already been partially bound into multinational command and mission structures for decades. De- spite the significant force reductions after the Cold War in Europe, the states of the Alliance and the Western European Union (WEU) per- ceived an increasing need to create major multinational units consist- ing of national contingents in order to maintain operational command levels below the integrated NATO command structure. This ‘interna- tionalisation of military life’1 soon extended to such organisational structures as brigades, divisions and Army corps, which had until then been preponderantly purely national domains (some exceptions being e. g. the Danish-German Corps LANDJUT, the German-French Brigade or the German-French initiative which led to the Eurocorps in 1994). The precipitous rise of peace support operations in the 1990s – sometimes including up to thirty different states and conducted under various auspices (e. g. UN, NATO, WEU, ad hoc coalitions) – has underlined the challenge that these multinational arrangements face: not only do they have to maintain structures and headquarters, they must also prove their effectiveness under operating mission conditions. For Europeans at least, multinationality in military missions has become the norm. The Bundeswehr, along with Danish and other armed forces had already anticipated this development by establishing multinational peacetime structures.2 Within ‘old NATO’, the pacemakers of multinationality were Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. While the smaller states – particularly with their Army forces – as- signed large units to the command of only one major multinational –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 1 Klein/Kümmel 2000: 311. 2 See Bundesministerium der Verteidigung 1999: 24. 9 unit3, by 1999 the German Army forces were, with the exception of two divisions, totally integrated into a whole series of bi-national or multinational corps. The establishment of further multinational corps headquarters – including integrating with a completely new partner like Poland – can thus be considered a logical consequence of the general trend. Nevertheless, the Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin, with regard to the background of its establishment, its current tasks, and its future role and functions, has been characterised thus far by a series of particularities which may gain importance as military integration within Europe and the Alliance progresses. As we discuss below, these particularities make the MNC NE – quite apart from its military functions – a political symbol of the progress- ing integration process in Europe. This double role certainly creates additional challenges for the soldiers and civilian employees of the Corps, compared with what they would face within a purely national duty routine. The question which will be in focus here – especially considering NATO’s latest enlargement round – is whether and under what conditions the principle of deepened integration used in the MNC NE would be fit to serve as a kind of blueprint for future multinational military formations. Considering the many different military identities, traditions, styles of leadership, and training levels that can be expected to come together in such mixed units, multinational structures are likely to form an increasing focus for future military- related social research. 1.1 The Background of the Establishment of the Corps and the Mo- tives of the Participating Nations Formally and organisationally, the Multinational Corps Northeast emerged from NATO CORPS LANDJUT in Rendsburg/Schleswig- Holstein (Germany). This organisation, maintained in common by Denmark and Germany, no longer had a place in the new command structure of the Alliance (adopted in 1997) and, consequently, was disbanded. It is not the case, however, that the establishment of the –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 3 Belgium in the Eurocorps, Denmark in NATO headquarters LANDJUT, the Netherlands in the 1st GE/NL Corps. 10 MNC NE is simply a façade for the continuation or resumption of a military unit under another label. From the very beginning, it was hoped by the participating states that this new Corps, far beyond its military-functional tasks and intended

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