Today marked the release of “Comprehensive Security and Integrated Defence”, an International Centre for Defence Studies report commissioned by the Parliamentary National Defence Committee. The release event featured a discussion and was attended by about 75 people – ministry permanent secretaries, directors of government agencies, top officers from the Defence Forces, and many others related to the field.
11.02.2014
Today marked the release of “Comprehensive Security and Integrated Defence”, an International Centre for Defence Studies report commissioned by the Parliamentary National Defence Committee. The release event featured a discussion and was attended by about 75 people – ministry permanent secretaries, directors of government agencies, top officers from the Defence Forces, and many others related to the field.
The Estonian Government began employing an integrated approach to national defence in 2010. Pursuant to the National Defence Strategy, subsequent steps will include submission for Cabinet approval of the non-military sections of the National Defence Development Plan for 2013-2022. These sections deal in a coordinated manner with both military defence and essential non-military activities. The Ministry of Defence is currently drafting a National Defence Act. The report was commissioned in order to document the current state of implementation of the integrated national defence model.
The report identifies conditions for the successful interactions of national security and defence stakeholders in the strategic framework of comprehensive security and integrated defence. It reviews the literature on comprehensive and integrated approaches to complex security and defence challenges and extracts some key factors underpinning the effective whole-of-government and whole-of-society efforts. It then considers experiences of several nations – Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands and Sweden – in building integrated security and defence systems. Finally, the paper investigates the ‘state of play’ in Estonia when it comes to implementing the concept of integrated defence. It closes with the recommendations to Estonia‘s policymakers.
Download: Comprehensive Security and Integrated Defence (PDF)