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Lilliputians divided: how service statutes fragment Lithuanian security services
Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija | |
Date Issued |
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2019 |
From a historical-institutional angle, this chapter focuses on Lithuania’s internal security services development. Resulting from both a decades-long period of economic growth as well as demographic decline, the Lithuanian security services are faced with an unfavorable recruitment environment, severely impeding the staffing of military units. In the light of the newly recognized threats from Russia, Lithuania needs to expand its military, which, amongst others, necessitates the expansion of the professional officer corps beyond the number of cadets graduating from the Military Academy. Despite increasing investments in defence and other measures, currently expansion requirements still cannot be met. Changes to the Interior Service Statute, which regulates the officers’ status of uniformed services within the areas of responsibility (AoRs) of the Ministries of Interior, Finance and Justice may offer some room to expand and develop the professional military officer corps. Although under Wartime Law, many of these services would be subjected to military command and considered part of the armed services, until now, defence policy developments have had little effect on the professional development of Interior Service officers. This chapter explores why the security services fail to coordinate the development of professional military competencies amongst themselves. We find three possible reasons. First, the security services fit into the broader Lithuanian governance model, which is characterized by multi-level fragmentation and appears resistant to integration policies, even in instances of great political salience. Furthermore, as the Interior Service Statute covers many agencies and services, some have their civilian functions ‘militarized’, whilst others have their military functions ‘demilitarized’. In doing so, the development of military competences across all services is hampered. Third, and seemingly paradoxically, increased defence spending seems to drive the military and other services in the armed forces apart.