This report, compiled especially for the meeting of the ministers of defence, offers an overview of the Nordic and Baltic defence aid projects aimed at transition democracies (e.g. Western Balkan countries, Ukraine and the Caucasus region), identifies the common areas and makes recommendations on how to enhance the coordination of collaboration in this field.
Riina Kaljurand and Karlis Neretnieks, researchers of the ICDS and FOI, state that the effectiveness of the security reform aid is curbed by the lack of coordination: there are many providers of aid, their activities overlap and there are no efficient measures to evaluate the performance or effects of certain projects.
If the Nordic-Baltic cooperation in sharing reform-related know-how were closer and more coordinated, the resources could be used more effectively, overlapping could be avoided and the harmonised message of the whole region could be amplified both in the target countries and on the international level – in the EU and NATO.
The authors make specific recommendations for improving the existing cooperation structure. In their opinion it is also extremely important that the Baltic Defence College were shaped into a leading Nordic-Baltic competence centre for the security sector reform.
This report constitutes the first major piece of research for the ICDS, the presentation and detailed discussion of which will take place at the ICDS on December 4. The report is available on the icds website - www.icds.ee - [Security Sector Reform: A Nordic – Baltic agenda] and you can read Riina Kaljurand’s comments in the ICDS blog.