International Conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION Vol. XXV No 1 2019

CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ROMANIAN NATIONAL GUARD

Mircea VLADU, Ioan-Dan POPA, Stelian POPESCU

“Nicolae Balcescu” Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, Romania [email protected]

Abstract: The insecurity area from the proximity of the Romanian territory has always been dynamic, fluid and characterized by insecurity issues. In such context, Romania could never be able to preserve the national security by its own powers. For eliminating such major deficiencies, Romania has made efforts towards the integration made efforts towards the integration in certain alliances that would give it security guarantees. Nevertheless, Romania has not relied in exclusivity on alliances for preserving the national security. From this perspective, Romania has prepared its own forces and means to fulfil this objective, until the potential alliance forces intervention. This attitude is maintained in the present days, when Romania is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty, and unless the activation of the 5th article of the Treaty, it must provide the national defence through its own forces and means. Still, according to our opinion, these forces and means destined to serve such purpose are insufficient and, consequently, they should be supplemented with other forces and means generated by the constitution of the National Guard, this compensating for the existing deficit. We consider that by taking this direction, we could go back to the long-lasting tradition of the National Guard in Romania, and to the example of the most powerful armies in the world: SUA, Great Britain, France etc. Starting from these considerations, we would like to further speak about the constitution of the National Guard in Romania.

Keywords: National Guard, security, national defence, augmentation

1. The Romanian Tradition regarding posts, whose role was to act in the mountain the National Guard area, frontier guards posts destined for The beginnings of the establishment of the action in the Danube River area, as well as National Guard on the Romanian territories a band of Dorobanți, with the role of acting can be located in Wallachia around 1831. within the counties of Wallachia. They From this perspective, there are documents were placed between the 18 posts of the stipulating that, starting with the „Straja pământească” (“National Guard”), aforementioned year, under the thus respecting the zonal principle and subordination of the „Departamentului covering a strip of 6 km from the border. Treburilor Din lăuntru”(„Department of There were 532 fighters in these posts, and Internal Affairs”) [1]„Straja pământească” 4023 fighters were in the band of (“National Guard”) was established, Dorobanți, whose equipment and weaponry consisting of 18 territorial formations such was very poor [2]. as „posts”, to ensure „border guarding and The year 1850 marked for the „Straja internal order”. pământească” (“National Guard”) the Three years later, there were also 58 beginning of the modernization of its intermediate posts, called border guards structure, which consisted in the formation

DOI: 10.2478/kbo-2019-0029 © 2015. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

175 of the Danube Inspectorate, which forming a basic fighting element, since it subordinated 3 battalions composed of was thus a powerful fighting force able to Dorobanți who fulfilled their missions in carry out military actions both in co- posts of border guards, the Inspectorate of operation with the other elements of the the Mountains, which had two battalions of system and independently. frontier guards and the local Police, Also on the basis of the military reform composed of 8 bands of Dorobanți. This initiated by Alexandru Ioan Cuza, starting modernization of structure generated the with 1864, the National Guards were increase of the number of soldiers from established at the city level, which 4,555, as they were in 1834, to 7,761 in amounted to approximately 20,000 fighters 1850 [3]. It should be underlined that aged 18-50, constituted in legions, although the structure has modernized and battalions and companies commissioned by the staffs have almost doubled, the missions officers from the regular army, and at the have remained the same. state level, the Corps of Dorobanți and Nineteen years later to the situation in Border Guards [5], composed of county Wallachia, concerns were also raised in squadrons that had a maximum number of Moldova for the establishment of National 15,000 Dorobanți and border guards. Guard structures subordinated to the National guards had the mission of keeping Department of the Internal Affairs, which the peace and order in the interior, as well constituted the “Corps of Servants” as preparing the citizens for the protection consisting of 4 border guards, each sector of the homeland from “the enemy of our consisting of 12 posts of border guards, as common peace and freedom” [6]. well as 1 local police body. Starting with 1868, the National Guards The border guards’ posts were organized and have turned into City Guards, which have acted on the zonal principle, and the local been set up as legions, battalions and police body acted alongside the administrative companies at the level of cities, whose role and judicial authorities in the capital of was to maintain public order and defend Moldova as well as other cities in Moldova. urban areas. There have been no changes to Although the Corps of Servants consisted the numerical value of the existing staff of only 1,563 fighters, it had to carry out since 1864, and the fighters have been particularly complex missions, mainly selected from persons who were not part of aimed at guarding borders and customs, as other elements of the armed forces and well as ensuring internal order. Two years were aged between 36 and 50 years. after its establishment, the Corps of The body of the Dorobanţi and the Border Servants formed, following the Guards was reorganized within 30 transformation, the Gendarmerie Regiment. squadrons of cavalry (Dorobanţi) with a Reforms triggered in the military field by total of 12,056 Dorobanţi and 12 battalions Alexandru Ioan Cuza generated the design of border guards, consisting of of a modern concept, focusing on the place approximately 7,000 people. and role of permanent troops and non- Two years after the removal of Alexandru permanent military forces [4], which were Ioan Cuza from the reign, certain groups of very popular. politicians tended to use the City Guards as In essence, these structures have retained a “mass of manipulation and pressure” in some traditional elements of organization, order to satisfy the interests of the group. but have also acquired some new aspects This attitude lasted until 1884. Carol I, that have closely matched their line troop initially the prince and later King of profile, and the Dorobanți and border Romania, took the decision to abolish the guards have been called militias who have City Guards to prevent a dangerous been included in the defence system, thus precedent that meant their diversion from

176 the purpose for which they were “mushrooms in the springtime” created a constituted. The squadrons of Dorobanţi state of concern for the political and (cavalry) and border guards battled into the military leadership of the state, which permanent army, thus moving to the decided to disarm and abolish them. foundation of a new concept, termed the In 1956, the political-military decision was “Territorial Army” [7]. taken to change the name of the National The very complex internal and international Guard in the Workers Guard and to political-military situation, from 1918 to establish the National Command of the 1943 led to the setting up of the National Workers Guards as the central body of their Guards Regional Staff, under the management. It subordinated to the level of subordination of the Central National the regions and districts the headquarters Romanian Committee (state power body), and staffs of workers’ guards for the which subordinated battalions and national establishment and training in enterprises of companies’ guards [8]. 35 battalions, 517 companies and 583 First, battalions and national guards’ platoons of workers’ guards with the role of companies formed in Transylvania, and self-defence of enterprises, ensuring the later on the whole territory of the country, support of the state bodies for defending the in order to restore order and public peace, constitutional order of counter- to protect citizens and to ensure the revolutionary elements aimed at hitting the protection of important civilian objectives. conquests of the working class. Initially, these structures were made up of What was essential for the National officers, non-commissioned officers and Command of Workers Guards was its Romanian soldiers enrolled in the Austro- manning entirely with active officers and Hungarian army, and later of all Romanians with 3-5 officers for each command and of all ages, aged between 15 and 55 years. general staff. The condition was for them to agree to During the mobilization and warfare, the voluntarily enrol and participate weekly in Workers Guards were augmented to 50,292 training. In 1941, four regional fixed fighters, and they trained weekly outside battalions were set up in Bihor, Vrancea, the program for 3-6 hours a week. Neamt and Bucovina [9], under the The events in Czechoslovakia in 1968 subordination of National Guards Regional determined the political-military leadership Staff, in order to reinforce the Army 1 of Romania to promote the doctrine of protection formation. two years later, 5 defence of the whole population, a situation regional fixed battalions were established in which several units and large military (Arieş, Someş, Cluj, Criş) to participate in units were established, and the Workers counteracting a possible aggression from Guards became Patriotic Guards. After the Hungary [10], which numbered 6,300 Revolution of December 1989, the General fighters, aged 15-55, led by active and Staff subsequently reorganized these reserve commanding officers. structures under the name of National After August 23, 1944, the National Guards Guards, subordinated them to the General continued to exist. Along with these, Staff of National Guards, and under the heterogeneous popular formations appeared subordination of each county military in organizational and endowment aspects, centre (district, municipal) one County including groups of partisans, detachments General Staff was constituted (municipal, of pre-military and passive defence staff, sectoral) of the National Guards, which, regional fixed battalions, as well as other during the mobilization state had to set up ad-hoc groups, representing the most battalions, companies and platoons of diverse categories and special layers. The national guards in enterprises to reject or emergence of these formations like destroy the enemy entering the national

177 territory, maintaining at any cost the In peacetime, in the structure of Territorial protection of areas, major districts and Units there were 438 officers, 126 warrant objectives, the protection of their localities, officers, 135 non-commissioned officers communications nodes, bridges and and 99 civilian employees. After the aerodromes, blocking of enemy airborne increase during the mobilization state, the launching (landing) districts, antiaircraft Territorial Border structures recorded 7,441 defence of sites and localities, execution of officers, 504 warrant officers, 3,713 non- reconnaissance etc. commissioned officers, 26,726 sergeants, The manpower of the National Guard 60,940 soldiers and 99 civilian employees. structures during peacetime amounted to The Territorial Units were designed to act, 1,359 active military staff and civilians, and independently or under the command of during the mobilization state it increased up large units and army units, during wartime, to approximately 1 million people. In 1992, in areas where operations were not yet the National Guards reorganized into fought, as follows: guard and defence of “Territorial Units”. For their leadership, the formations; guiding the movement; Territorial Troops Division was set up at guarding of mandatory crossing points; the level of the General Staff, and within securing, guarding and defence of some each Territorial Military Command a knots and railway stations;accompanying Territorial Troops Compartment was the transport columns to the assembly established. The county military centres points; collecting and directing to the (district, municipal) have formed Territorial designated places the requisite means for Bureaus, with the task of setting up the benefit of the forces; execution of battalions, companies, and platoons of masking works; completing force territorial troops to be mobilized [11]. reconnaissance; defence of targets; taking The number of military employees in the part in the removal of the enemy’s blows Territorial Troops was 903 military staff from the air and evacuating, sheltering and members and civilian employees, and the guarding goods of particular importance. missions of these troops were similar to At the same time, the Territorial Units were those of the 1990s. also destined for actions in the areas of In 1994, the Territorial Units underwent operations in which aggression was substantial changes in the sense that in the triggered, as follows: independent or General Staff, at the Operations Directorate, subordinate participation of the army units the Territorial Units Bureau was in the strengthening of the guard and established, the Territorial Units’ Division defence of the state border and of important was established within the Land Forces objectives, as well as to the fighting actions General Staff, and at the level of the taken by armed forces categories; blocking, Military Navy Staff, the Commands Army destroying or capturing the enemy’s and Army Corps, a Territorial Units Bureau terrorist elements and reconnaissance- was established for each of these. At the diversion groups; guarding prisoners and level of the counties (Bucharest), there were war captures. 47 Territorial Bureaus, in which 126 Between 1994 and 2001, Territorial Units battalion orders were activated [12]. were continuously reorganized according to During mobilization, the Territorial the requirements of the army’s restructuring Bureaus set up, within 5 days, 126 process. The establishment of the battalions, 260 companies and 212 Romanian Gendarmerie and the Border platoons, on the territorial principle, that is, Police led to some missions to the territorial at the level of the county where they came troops, as well as the necessity to reduce from or in relation to the situation and many of the military and civilian functions beyond. in the army structure, determined the

178 decision, hastily we believe, to abolish the emergencies, only in limited situations, Territorial Units. We argue that the decision since constitutional structures are actively to abolish the Territorial Units was hasty, as overcome, and sovereignty, independence, on the territory of Romania it was territorial integrity and democracy are manifested and certainly there will be crises severely affected. To achieve this, these generated by natural factors, but also by countries have designed and built force factors of political, economic, social nature, structures called the National Guard. These for which the Forces of the Ministry of countries include the United States, Internal Affairs are insufficient in quantity, Sweden, Ukraine etc. On the models of the and their endowment and training is still National Guard in these states we want to falling short. Under these conditions, the discuss further, in order to conclude that the political-military decision maker turns to decision of the Romanian political-military the army. The main role of the army is to factor to abolish the National Guard was defend the independence, sovereignty and erroneous and that their rebirth is required, integrity of the Romanian state. As a result, according to the standards of the we appreciate that the army should only be aforementioned states. involved in such crises as a last resort, or in The oldest component of the US Armed order to achieve such a desiderate, it is Forces and one of the nation’s most necessary in a state of law to design and sustainable institutions, the National Guard, build structures to support them will celebrate its 383th anniversary in 2019. appropriately on what has already been The National Guard participated in all the done in managing crisis situations. wars and conflicts that the US was involved Given that Romania is integrated into the in. European and Euro-Atlantic structures, we In the nineteenth century, the regular army consider that it is necessary to bring back was small and as a result the National into our attention the concept of National Guard provided 70% of the troops involved Guard and to adapt it according to the in the war in Mexico, during the start of the requirements and requests derived from the civil war and the American-Spanish war. need to ensure interoperability with our During the First World War, 40% of the partners within the North Atlantic Alliance. troops that fought in France were insured The achievement of the goal of establishing from the National Guard. the National Guard in Romania will be In World War II, National Guard units were beneficial for the Romanian Gendarmerie and among the first to deploy outside US the Emergency Situations Inspectorate, which territory and the first to fight. Following the will find in it a strong structure capable of Second World War, the National Guard supporting them for the management of all aviation units became the National Guard internal crises and the army will focus better Air Force, the newest component of the on the training process, being required to nation’s Reserve Forces. manage internal crises only exceptionally, More than 138,000 members of the when the forces competent to do so were National Guard were mobilized in Korea, overcome, and the integrity, sovereignty and followed by small mobilizations during the constitutional democracy of the Romanian Berlin Crisis, in Vietnam, and during state might be lost. strikes and revolts in the US [13]. More than 63,000 members of the National Guard 2. National Guard in the Concept of participated in Operation Desert Storm in Modern States 1991, and in the years that followed, the Armed forces from modern states, member National Guard played an important role in and non-NATO members, give their executing peacekeeping missions in contribution to the management of civilian Somalia, Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,

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Bosnia and Kosovo. At the same time, the after theHelsinki Summit, on the initiative National Guard participated in Operation of President Leonid Kuchma, in order to IRAQI FREEDOM in 2003 with a medical reduce budget expenditures, estimated at company [14]. approximately 50 million dollars a year. The US National Guard carries out two The National Guard of Ukraine was able to types of missions: fulfil the following missions [17]:  at the state level - the provision of  defending constitutional order and trained and equipped units in order to territorial integrity of Ukraine against protect the citizens’ lives and their attempts to modify them by force; private property;  participation in the application of  at federal level - providing the nation measures imposed by the state of with well-trained and equipped units necessity; ready to defend the US and their  participation in the liquidation of the interests anywhere in the world. consequences of natural catastrophes and In the US, the National Guard has disasters; structures in the Land Forces, Special  supporting the border guard troops in Forces and Air Forces. detaining the offenders, with the forces The Land Forces of the National Guard of the units deployed in the border areas. (ARNG) [15] is a component part of the  participation in fighting for the rejection Land Forces consisting of the active and the of external aggression; reserve elements.  defending the diplomatic and consular The Special Forces of the National Guard representations of foreign states in the represented by two groups have the mission territory of Ukraine. to plan and support special operations in In Sweden the National Guard with a staff any operational environment. of 100,000 people was established. This is a Special Operations are performed component of the Land Forces warfare independently or in conjunction with organization, and originates from the conventional forces. former, popular fighting formations. Special Operations forces, different from The current structure of the National Guard conventional ones, are organized, trained dates back to 1940, the year in which it was and equipped to act on military, political, established, and since then it has economic or psychological objectives, maintained its active status in order to using various means. participate alongside the Territorial Troops Special Forces can support combat theatres and Land Forces Operation Units to prevent to act on national security goals during a surprise attack [18] on Sweden. peace and war times. The National Guard is subordinated to the The National Guard’s Air Force [16] is a Command of the Land Forces and formed separate US Air Force component and the of the National General Guard and the Air Force would not be able to carry out the National Industrial Guard. missions without the support of the Air The National Guard units act together with Force in the National Guard and the reserve the operational units of the Land Forces to Air Force. reject the surprise attacks by the opponent The events in Moscow in 1991 prompted with special forces. At the same time, the Ukraine to establish the National Guard National Guard subunits can act for the outside the Ministry of Defence on 4 defence of stations, airports, aviation bases November 1991, and later on 19 May 1992 and crossing points, as well as for the adopted the “Law on the National Guard of grounding of the land and the execution of Ukraine”. The National Guard functioned guerrilla actions, etc, until 1998, when it was disbanded shortly

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The National Guard of Sweden is a mass complementary structures that take over movement for Swedish citizens who are 15 some of the army’s responsibilities in years old, composed of: National internal crisis situations, endangering the Regulatory Guard; Additional National constitutional order or caused by natural Guard; Additional National Industrial disasters and increasing the military effort Guard; National Veterans Guard; National to war. Women Guard; National Music Guard; Under these circumstances, starting with National Drivers Guard; National Clerks Romania’s national traditions, in Motorcyclists Guard; National Sanitary conjunction with the concerns of the Guard; National Signal Officers Guard; Member States and non-members N.A.T.O. National Youth Guard [19]. in the field of National Guard, we consider At the same time, besides these staffs, the it appropriate to establish the National National Guard may also mobilize about Guard in Romania as an institution 50,000 recruits, coming from the category specialized in solving internal crises, in excepted from doing the military service for cooperation with the structures of the various reasons. Ministry of Internal Affairs and as a force Given that National Guards recruits do not of the National Defence System, practice peacetime training, they will participating in the armed defence effort of execute in crisis and wartime situations the country, the national defence. only limited missions, usually guard. From the operational point of view, setting up the National Guard in Romania, the 3. Arguments to support the regeneration skilled human potential resulting from the of the National Guard in Romania restructuring of the army would be better The geostrategic position of Romania, as utilized and the army reserve officers could well as the existence of outbreaks of be included in the nation’s defence effort. instability in the proximity of its eastern At the same time, significant amounts of borders, necessitate, in our opinion, the combat means would be maintained in the regeneration of the National Guard in military structures, which would become Romania. This necessity relies also on surplus as a result of the reduction of the relevant analyses of structural, financial and military forces and would better capitalize operational nature. on the dismissed barracks, which were not The structural analysis induces the idea that transferred to civil society, and the entire NATO structures require the construction training base became unfitting due to the of the National Defence System in relation lack of military staff. to the obligations of participation in collective defence, the solving of problems 4. Conclusions caused by the manifestation of internal The establishment of the National Guard in crises and the constitution in an organized Romania represents, in our opinion, a system of the human, economic and necessity, determined by the requirements material potential which Romania has. of the current stage that Romania must go The analysis from the financial point of through after its integration into the view, leads to the conclusion that even if European and Euro-Atlantic structures. 2% of GDP is allocated annually for Integration into a collective defence defence, we cannot talk about budgetary structure requires that the same values be sufficiency. As a result, the army’s staff are shared as well as interoperable and insufficient to handle situations under compatible military structures to ensure national defence and civilian emergency their guarantee. Internal stability can only management. In these circumstances, we be achieved, preserved and amplified using consider that it is necessary to create law-abiding structures, in which the

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National Guard would occupy an important situations determined by economic, social, place. This could relieve the army of religious factors, etc., the Romanian missions in situations of internal crises Gendarmerie could amplify its efforts with caused by economic, social, religious the help of the National Guard structures, factors, etc., and would exclude the especially in the present and future occurrence of phenomena like those of conditions when the gendarmes’ December 1989. endowment and training do not meet the At the same time, the National Guard European and Euro-Atlantic standards. would make available to the public During the state of war, both the army and administration an organized and the Romanian Gendarmerie could increase appropriately structured set up that could their combat force as a result of the support prevent, limit or liquidate the consequences provided by the National Guard structures of disasters caused by natural or artificial during the combined military actions, in factors. accordance with their organization, At the same time, in internal crisis endowment and training.

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