Overview
Armed forces have played a pivotal role in Cambodia's recent political history. Throughout the 1970s, 1980s and into the early 1990s, Cambodia was plagued by the existence of fractionalized partisan military formations that aggravated political rivalries, and by soldiers who tried to seize political power. Recognizing the danger that an unreformed, swollen army poses to maintaining peace and stability, the current coalition government with help from international donors has begun a process of demobilization. This, however, only constitutes the first of many steps that Cambodia will have to take if it is to successfully transform its armed force into an organization that supports and serves a modern state governed by democratically elected civilians. Successful military reform will require the engagement and cooperation of all sectors of society: the military itself, government, and civil society.
With support from the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) field office in Cambodia, NDI recently began work on security sector reform. The goal of this program is to work with Cambodian NGOs, supporting them by enhancing their understanding of the role of the armed forces in a democratic society, by initiating dialogue about the role of the military in Cambodia, and by providing advice and financial assistance to their current efforts to improve civil-military relations in the country. NDI has chosen not to work directly with the Cambodian government in demobilization efforts or to assist the military. Instead, by working directly with civil society organizations, NDI hopes to begin to build civil society's familiarity with the discourse on civil-military relations, to raise the confidence of these civil society organizations as they engage in discussions with the government and military about security issues, and to encourage civil society organizations to eventually advocate for responsible security policy. In the future, NDI hopes to provide technical assistance to NGOs involved in reviewing defense proposals or to help them develop advocacy efforts on military reform issues.
In order to pursue these objectives, NDI-Cambodia established a cooperative agreement with the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP). CICP with assistance from NDI has begun to implement a series of public discussions on a variety of topics within the field of civil-military relations. Program participants include government and defense officials, civil society members, political party representatives, Members of Parliament, and academics as well as international experts in civil military relations. CICP anticipates leading a series of ten workshops over the period of the next year.
The first workshop, held in December, addressed "Issues, challenges and Prospects" of civil-military reform in Cambodia. Participants numbered over 350 and represented a broad range of actors in Cambodian society, including: members of the national assembly and the senate, government officials, military officials, representatives of civil society and NGOs, students, Buddhist monks and nuns, military police officials, diplomats, police officials, and journalists.
Future workshops will address more specific topics and will be targeted at a smaller yet equally diverse group of participants. Some of the topics that will be addressed include: the challenges of reintegrating soldiers into society, the role of the Cambodian Parliament in defense and security, and reconciliation and building up trust between soldiers and citizens.
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