Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany — Members of the Macedonian parliament recently concluded a four-day workshop tailored to address the security issues they face as members of their legislature’s Defense and Security Committee.

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German parliamentarian Dr. Hans Raidel, a member of the Bundestag’s Defense Committee, talks with counterparts on Macedonia’s Defense and Security Committee about parliamentary oversight of military forces during a seminar at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

Photo by Karlheinz Wedhorn

The workshop took place at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies here, and was one of many such programs the Center has created to meet the needs of European and Eurasian leaders. The program was organized around a series of lectures and seminars using a diverse range of professors from the Center’s College of International and Security Studies, as well as experts drawn from the wider community.

The 45-minute presentations were followed by question-and-answer sessions, discussions and interaction between the parliamentarians and presenters, who reported lively discussion that revealed a wide range of perspectives.

“The members of parliament have an opportunity to get away from the phone calls, meetings, and other distractions of a typical day and to focus their attention on some of the issues that they must handle,” said the workshop’s organizer, CISS Associate Dean Dr. Detlef Puhl.

“It’s an excellent opportunity to understand the point of view of the presentations made by the professors,” agreed Garip Kaba, a member of Macedonia’s Parliament. “They intertwined the political and defense issues. Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised by the agenda and how it was organized.”

Sessions included an address on the German perspective on parliamentary oversight of the armed forces by German Bundestag member Dr. Hans Raidel, an exploration of the role of the UN and the international community in diplomacy by former Polish ambassador to the US and CISS faculty member Przemyslaw Grudzinski, and a discussion of European integration during a session on the EU and the European Security Defense Policy by CISS faculty member and retired French Lieutenant General Jean-Paul Raffenne. Other workshop topics included globalization and security, contemporary armed conflict, NATO and the Partnership for Peace, civil-military relations, small states and security, defense budgeting, and the role of the free press in a democracy.

“Most lectures dealt with security and will be useful to those of us working on the defense and security committee,” Kaba said. “We learned new things and will use this new knowledge in the discussions and debates during our committee meetings and parliamentary sessions. We will try to convey this experience and share it with our colleagues.”