Recent conflicts, new threats underline need for adapted military doctrine, Italian official says at OSCE meeting

VIENNA, 24 May 2011 – Contemporary and recent conflicts have demonstrated that military measures alone cannot create security, Italian Lieutenant General Paolo Magro said today at the opening session of an OSCE seminar on military doctrine.

"A consensus has emerged that military instruments cannot operate in isolation and successful operations and enduring outcomes will involve a wider range of actors and contributors," he said.

A comprehensive approach that blends civilian and military tools and provides for co-operation, co-ordination and coherence among all the actors involved is needed not only  to  deliver security and stability, but also to deal with emerging challenges and threats, added Magro, whose country holds to chairmanship of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation, the body that organized the meeting.

Austrian Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Christian Segur-Cabanac, said the rapid changes in the field of security politics pose a challenge both to  politics and military, saying "they have to deal with new and old threats and adapt their basic guidelines, such as strategies and doctrine". 

The OSCE Secretary General, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, emphasized that "the OSCE’s work has always been based on the notion of comprehensive and co-operative security".

Although new threats demand new responses, conventional arms control agreements remain important, Perrin de Brichambaut said: "Even when faced with new and asymmetric threats, we should ensure that the conventional agreements which have been so pivotal to European security and stability are preserved."

The OSCE High-Level Military Doctrine Seminar, held today and tomorrow in Vienna, brings together around 300 senior officials. Discussions focus on how changes in military technology and military doctrines since the last seminar, held in 2006, affect security in the OSCE area.

The OSCE organizes periodic military doctrine seminars as specified in the Vienna Document 1999, a main OSCE confidence-and security-building measure.