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Examining NATO's Role in Institutional Changes of South Caucasus

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Examining NATO's Role in Institutional Changes of South Caucasus Université Libre de Bruxelles Faculté des Sciences Sociales et Politiques University of Bielefeld Department of Sociology PhD Disseration (co-tutelle) Transforming Defence: Examining NATO’s Role in Institutional Changes of South Caucasus Countries (A comparative Study of Armenia and Georgia) Par Shalva Dzebisashvili Dissertation présentée en vue d‘obtenir le titre de docteur en sciences politiques et sociales Sous la direction du professeur Aude Merlin Membres du Jury : Aude Merlin Université Libre de Bruxelles Andreas Vasilache Universitaet Bielefeld Christian Olsson Université Libre de Bruxelles George Christou University of Warwick Année académique 2015-2016 2 Aknowledgments In this very moment of reaching the ―final destination‖ I look back over the years spent with writing the doctoral thesis, and realize, how many individuals had played crucial role in supporting my research endeavor. Without saying much, the first portion of my gratitude goes to my supervisor Aude Merlin, who decisively shaped my initial view on the structure of the research project and greatly contributed to my attempts to distill key concepts that would guide me throughout the study. I would like to thank to Andreas Vasilache, my second supervisor in University of Bielefeld, for steady and meticulous support, which substantially eased the writing process and provided much more strength to key messages of the work. I thank Christian Olsson, a member of my jury, for providing targeted comments and suggestions. Big thanks go to Chiara Pierobon, Frederik Ponjart and Johan Robberecht for their inexhaustible capacity to listen, collect and deal with my requests, calls and questions related both to peculiarities of academic administration and that of local accommodation. A special word of gratitude is reserved for my friends and colleagues from ULB, Camille Kelbel, Marie - Catherine Wavreille and Elwin Reimink, who managed to turn every my stay in Brussels to an event full of fantastic memories. Finally, I thank my wife Tamuna for her infinite sense of support, endurance and encouragement that gave me additional strength and secured the completion of the work. Bielefeld 04/09/2015 3 Table of Contents CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 3 1.1 The Puzzle 3 1.2 The Scholarly Debate and Existing Cleavages 5 1.3 NATO – Enlargement: Identifying Linkages to Democratization Literature 8 1.4 What do We Miss in the Relevant Literature 11 1.5 Basic Research Questions 15 1.6 Structure of Paper 17 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 18 2.1 Introduction 18 2.2 Institutional Prism of Analysis – Point of Departure for the Analytical Inquiry 18 2.2.1 Rational Choice vs. Sociological Institutionalism 21 2.2.2 Defining Institutional Patterns of International Organizations 24 2.2.3 Organizational Facelift of International Institutions 27 2.3 The Centrality of Neo - Liberal Institutionalism to the Concept of Study 31 2.3.1 Theoretical Cleavages and the Need for theoretical Complementarism 32 2.3.2 Neo - Liberal Institutionalism – the Source of Analytical Design 36 2.3.3 Neoliberal View of Institutions – The most compatible Framework 39 2.4 Analytical Design and Hypotheses 44 2.4.1 Understanding analytical Design 45 2.4.2 Introducing Variables and Hypotheses 47 2.5 Conclusion 51 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 53 3.1 Introduction 53 3.2 Methodological Options available 54 3.3 Justification of the selected methodological Approach – the Case Choice and Comparison 57 3.3.1 Opting for qualitative Approach 57 3.3.2 Arguments for Case - Selection and Comparison 58 3.4 Methodological Limitations 60 4 CHAPTER IV: OPERATIONALIZING THE CONCEPT OF NATO - INFLUENCE 64 4.1 Introduction 64 4.2 Influence – an implied Conditionality 65 4.2.1 Conditionality and Compliance 66 4.2.2 Implementing Commitments – An Imperfect Indicator for the Compliance 69 4.3 Security Sector Reform – a Term of Reference for NATO Conditionality 71 4.3.1 Institutional Aspect of Governance – A Key Message of SSR 72 4.3.2 SSR - The Message throughout The NATO - Partnership 75 4.4 Socialization in Defence and Military – The invisible Hand of NATO - Influence 81 4.4.1 Military Socialization as the Means of normative Adaptation 82 4.4.2 Power of Identity - Change and its Limitations 84 4.5 Finalizing the Notion of NATO - Influence 86 4.6 “Measuring” NATO - Influence 89 4.6.1 Translating NATO – Requirements into meeasurable Defence Transformation Areas 91 4.6.2 ―Measurement Tool‖ Offered 93 4.6.3 Data Sources 97 CHAPTER V: BASICS OF INFLUENCE: NATO’S INTERESTS IN THE REGION AND MECHANISMS OF COOPERATION 98 5.1 The Alliance’s Interests in the South - Caucasus Region 98 5.1.1 From Summit to Summit – From Neglect to Recognizing the Benefits of Military Cooperation 99 5.1.2 The U.S. Interests and the ―good for Alliance‖ 102 5.2 Mechanisms of Cooperation 104 5.2.1 Partnership for Peace (PFP) – Tools 104 5.2.2 Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP) and Annual National Program (ANP) 107 CHAPTER VI: NATO AND DEFENCE TRANSFORMATION IN ARMENIA 109 6.1 Introduction 109 6.2 NATO in National Agenda: The Political Purpose of Cooperation and Defence Reforms 110 6.2.1 NATO in Armenia‘s Strategic Agenda 110 6.2.2 Purpose of Cooperation and Defence Reforms 114 6.2.3 Democratic Control of Armed Forces 120 6.2.3.1 Civilian Oversight of the Military and the Role of Governmental Structures 120 6.2.3.2 Role of National Parliament 124 6.2.3.3 Converging Views on generational Division of defence Reforms 127 6.2.4 Summirizing the political Dimension of Cooperation 129 6.3 NATO - Influence in functional Areas of Defence 130 6.3.1 Introduction 130 6.3.2 Defence Policy and Planning 132 6.3.2.1 A new Practice – Developing Strategic Policy Documents 133 6.3.2.2 Key Role of the Strategic Defence Review and its Deficiencies 139 6.3.2.3 Summarizing the Progress 141 6.3.3 Interoperability and NATO - Standards 142 6.3.3.1 Peculiarities in Understanding NATO – Standards and Interoperability 143 6.3.3.2 The Scale of Standard – Application in Armenian Armed Forces 145 6.3.3.3 NATO – Standards: the Prevalence of technical Understanding 150 6.3.4 Budgetary Planning and Transparency 152 6.3.4.1 The Practice of Developing Defence Budget 152 5 6.3.4.2 Conflicting Messages of Planning Documents 157 6.3.4.3 Defence Transparency - No Light in Sight 159 6.3.5 Human Resources and the Pace of ―Civilianization‖ 162 6.3.6 Training, Education and Participation in NATO - Missions 165 6.3.6.1 Growing Intensity of Cooperation: The welcomed NATO - Assistance 166 6.3.6.2 Thorny Path of adopting NATO - educational Standards 170 6.3.6.3 Individuals – Key Factor for Policy Approval and ideational Change 174 6.4 Concluding Findings 177 CHAPTER VII: NATO AND DEFENCE TRANSFORMATION IN GEORGIA 182 7.1 Introduction 182 7.2 NATO in Georgian National Agenda – The Purpose of Cooperation and Defence Reforms 183 7.2.1 NATO – Cooperation: The Prevalence of Security Concerns in Georgia 183 7.2.1.1 Security as the Motive and the Military as Enabler for NATO – Integration 184 7.2.1.2 Prevalence of democratic Achievements for NATO 187 7.2.1.3 The Importance of Territorial Integrity to the Issue of NATO - Integration 191 7.2.1.4 Russo - Georgian War in 2008 and Changes in Relationship with NATO 195 7.2.1.5 The Reluctance to Admit and the Divergence of Expectations 197 7.2.2 Democratic Control of Armed Forces 201 7.2.2.1 Continuing Deficits of parliamentary Control 202 7.2.2.2 ―Civilianization― and incompetent Leadership 208 7.3 NATO - Influence in Functional Areas of Defence 211 7.3.1 Introduction 211 7.3.2 Defence Policy and Planning 212 7.3.2.1 Confusing Messages of Georgian strategic Documents 212 7.3.2.2 Frequent Change - the Feature of Georgian Defence Planning 214 7.3.2.3 Strategic Defence Review (SDR) – rather Formality than the Guidance 216 7.3.2.4 Defence Planning – A clear Evidence of sporadic Actions 222 7.3.3 Interoperability and NATO - Standards 224 7.3.3.1 Initial Steps: a Bottom – up Approach in the Military 225 7.3.3.2 Nuances of NATO - Standardization in Georgia 228 7.3.3.3 U.S. – Assistance : Focus on foreign Deployments 231 7.3.4 Budgetary Planning and Transparency 237 7.3.4.1 The Budgetary Practices 2004 - 2012 237 7.3.4.2 Aknowledgment of the persisting Deficits 245 7.3.5 Human Resources 250 7.3.5.1 Personnel Reshuffling – a constant Feature of the new Policy 250 7.3.5.2 Leadership Change and the Credibility of Policy – Commitments 253 7.3.6 Transformation through Socialization: military Training and Education, Participation in NATO - Operations 255 7.3.6.1 The high Speed of bilateral Cooperation 257 7.3.6.2 Dominance of U.S. – Assistance 259 7.3.6.3 Meeting NATO in HQ and the Field: Sociological Effects of Identity Formation 260 7.4 Concluding Findings 264 CHAPTER VIII: COMPARATIVE SUMMARY 271 8.1 The Evidence of a Counterintuitive Paradox 271 8.2 So what with our Hypotheses? 275 8.2.1 Adoption of Norms and Practices - not always not every where 275 8.2.2 The Comparison – an additional Argument for the Interest based State Behavior? 277 6 CHAPTER IX: CONCLUSION 280 ANNEXES 284 A.1 U.S. military Assistance Programs and Funding 2004 - 2012 284 REFERENCES 285 7 List of Acronyms ACO Allied Command Operations MTEF Medium/Mid Term Expenditure AF Armed Forces Forecast C3 Command Control and NAC North Atlantic Council Communication NCO Non Commissioned Officer CC Conditionality Compliance NDU National Defence University CS Combat Support NGC NATO – Georgia Commission CSS Combat Service Support NLO NATO Liaison Office CTF Combined Task Force NMS National Military Strategy DCAF Geneva Center for
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