WGA 2020 | Austria | Policies Developed

Policies Developed

Question:
Discuss both explicitly formulated WGA policies and more implicit references to a WGA in your country. You may, for example, describe and assess the scope and quality of official or semi-official policies or discuss the country’s obligations under international and EU agreements.

Austria Expert

Christian Strohal

Senior Diplomat, Austria

Christian Strohal is a senior Austrian diplomat. After having served from 2013 to 2016 as Austria’s Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, he was nominated to be Special Representative for Austria’s OSCE Chairmanship in 2017. Since retiring, he has been a Senior Adviser to the current Slovak OSCE Chair-in Office and a non-resident Fellow at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD), which is affiliated with Princeton University. From 2008 to 2013, Christian represented Austria at the UN Office, the Conference on Disarmament and other international organisations in Geneva. From 2003 to 2008, he was Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the OSCE. Between 2007 and 2012, he also served as an alternate Member of the Management Board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. Earlier functions include Ambassador for the 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights; Director for Human Rights at Austria’s Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs; and Ambassador to Luxembourg. Christian was educated in Vienna, London and Geneva and holds a Dr.iur. from the University of Vienna. He has also held lecturing positions at various institutions and published a number of articles.

Ursula Werther-Pietsch

Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, Vienna

Ursula Werther-Pietsch works in Austria’s Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, served as Senior Visiting Fellow at the National Defence Academy, and is one of the founders of Austria’s 3C approach. She is Professor of International Law and International Relations and teaches at various academic institutions, including the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, the National Defence Academy and the Bundeswehr University Munich. Prior to that, she was Head of Unit at the Bureau of the Legal Adviser and the Constitutional Service at the Federal Chancellery. Before entering into public service, she was an Assistant at the universities of Graz and Vienna. Ursula is an Adviser to the master’s degree programme of the Academic Forum for Foreign Policy and a Member of the Scientific Commission of the Ministry of Defence. She is founder of the journal Juristische Ausbildung und Praxis and has published widely, including the books Human Rights and Inclusive Societies (2014), International Crisis and Conflict Management (2017), Women as Drivers for Peace (2019), and The Collective Security System of the UN (forthcoming). Ursula studied Law, Architecture and French, and holds a PhD in Law from the University of Graz.

Markus Gauster

Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management (IFK), National Defence Academy, Vienna

Markus Gauster has been a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management (IFK) of Austria’s National Defence Academy since 2004. He holds a master’s degree in Law and a doctorate in Political Science from the universities of Graz and Vienna, and earned a certificate in Broadcast Journalism from the Danube University Krems. He was also active in the private sector and is a Reserve Officer in the Austrian Armed Forces. His research areas include conflict transformation in Afghanistan, civil-military interaction in peace operations, and innovative concepts for international crisis management (e.g. whole-of-nation approaches for coherent action in situations of conflict and fragility). Gauster undertook fact-finding missions in Afghanistan and its strategic environment, including as a long-term Election Observer for the European Union. He has written various articles and publications, and is a member of the International Society of Military Sciences as well as of the executive board of the Vienna-based Austria-Afghanistan Society.

Hans Lampalzer

Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management (IFK), National Defence Academy, Vienna

Colonel Hans Lampalzer currently works at the Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management (IFK) of Austria’s National Defence Academy in Vienna. After graduating from the Theresian Military Academy in 1991, he held various posts in the Austrian Armed Forces in addition to studying Translation Studies and Political Science at the University of Vienna. He also earned a doctorate in Intervention Research from the University of Klagenfurt, where his studies focused on the links between intercultural questions and security. Lampalzer has lectured to military and civilian audiences at, among others, the European Security and Defence College, the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, the FHS St. Gallen University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland, and several Austrian universities. He served at the Kosovo Force Headquarters in 2002 and 2003, has experience as an ODIHR Election Observer, and worked part-time from 2008 to 2015 for the Austrian Verification Center, especially in Russia and Belarus. From 2016 to 2017, he was Head of the OSCE High-Level Planning Group under the German and Austrian chairmanship. From May 2018 to March 2019, he served as a Liaison Officer to Austria’s Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs. In this position, in the second half of 2018, he served as a National Delegate to the Friends of the Presidency Group for Countering Hybrid Threats while Austria held the presidency of the Council of the European Union. His current research focuses on security-sector reform, and he is also responsible for the implementation of the Ministry of Defence’s contribution to the OSCE Armenia Co-operation Programme.

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The Austrian Security Strategy (BKA 2013) promotes the implementation of WGA structures, including through different sectoral strategies. This concept basically systematises the interaction of various policy fields and stakeholders in addition to including a ‘division of labour’ among governmental and non-governmental actors. In contrast, Austria’s Comprehensive Security Provision has only been implemented in parts to date.

A core document is the Strategic Guideline on Security and Development of October 2011 (BMEIA and BMLV 2011), which provided for an explicit WGA: “The Austrian contribution to security and development is a task for the whole of government. The joint goals can only be achieved through a coordinated, complementary and coherent [3C] approach by all actors (whole-of-government approach – WoGA). Resources in security and development must be allocated in the most concerted way” (ibid.: 5). This approach has evolved over several stages, especially in light of the experiences of Austria’s engagement in South-East Europe – in particular with NATO-led missions in Kosovo (KFOR) – and Afghanistan (ISAF and RSM) as well as with the EU-led training mission in the Central African Republic (EUTM RCA). Beginning in 2014 and continuing to this day, ministries and (increasingly) civil society have been regularly involved in a workstream steered by the Federal Chancellery, i.e. the elaboration of the Foreign Deployment Concept (Auslandseinsatzkonzept) in the fields of planning for early warning, crisis prevention and management, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction as well as handling its underlying legal issues.

While the sectoral strategy for defence policy of 2014 (BMLV 2014) and the Military Strategic Concept 2017 (BMLV 2017) stipulate that Austria’s armed forces have to contribute to the implementation of the Comprehensive Security Provision within the framework of the Austrian Security Strategy, the 2017 sectoral strategy for foreign policy continues to be in draft form. Nevertheless, the draft document does reflect and inspire current foreign policy priorities and, like the policies for internal security and defence, the foreign policy doctrine details international challenges as well as national priorities and responses. Prevention and management of crises and conflicts is one of the underlying priorities.

Complementary to the Austrian Security Strategy (BKA 2013) and the Strategic Guideline on Security and Development (BMEIA and BMLV 2011), the three-year programme on Austrian development policy 2019–2021 (3YP) (BMEIA 2019a) engages in the humanitarian development-peacebuilding nexus as well as in dialogue, mediation and conflict transformation in different regions, especially in South-East Europe, the Eastern Neighbourhood and sub-Saharan Africa. A conceptual priority is civilian and military capacity-building. The programme calls for all Austrian actors to engage in joint efforts to achieve human security through viable local capacities and institutions on the ground. Active civil society engagement is appreciated as a major contribution.

As they represent decisions taken by Austria’s federal cabinet, the three documents mentioned in the paragraph above are binding on all government actors. For the time being, these three strategies provide the basis for additional non-binding guidelines for implementation. NGOs are consulted in the elaboration of strategies and may associate themselves on a voluntary basis as part of a so-called whole-of-nation approach.

Summing up, Austria’s WGA framework for responding to external conflicts and crises is a mixed approach that combines formal and informal elements within the overall concept of the Comprehensive Security Provision. However, implementation guidelines remain informal, and there continue to be certain discrepancies regarding resource allocation and the sharing of competencies and responsibilities among the stakeholders involved.

In terms of international reference frameworks, as already mentioned, Austria bases its global engagement in international peacekeeping and peace-support operations, development cooperation, humanitarian action and disaster relief on the following major international frameworks: the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; UN Security Council resolutions; the 2016 EU Global Strategy for the foreign and security policy (EUGS), its implementation and EU CSDP decisions; the NATO-Partnership for Peace (PfP) agenda; and the political priorities developed in the framework of the OSCE and the European Consensus on Development (as reflected in the 3YP).

Austria particularly focuses on EU policies that establish a mutually reinforcing relationship, and it was actively involved in drafting the EUGS. In fact, even before the EUGS was adopted in 2016, Austria’s security strategy (BKA 2013: 12) had clearly stipulated that “[t]he EU, as a comprehensive community of peace, security and solidarity, provides the central framework of action of Austria’s security policy”, and that “Austria will be involved in every dimension of EU security policy”.

As part of further shaping the EU’s role as a credible and reliable security provider, the EUGS has generally fostered increased collaboration among various stakeholders in Austria at the national level with a view to follow up on the concrete commitments of the EU’s member states laid down in the EUGS, as the following examples demonstrate:

First, the EUGS promotes the EU’s integrated approach, resilience and external action, among other priorities, while stressing the importance of complying with international humanitarian law. As the Federal Ministry of Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs (BMEIA) states on its website (BMEIA 2019b): “The protection of civilians and the commitment to upholding international humanitarian law are longstanding Austrian foreign policy priorities.”

Second, geographical priorities of the EUGS (e.g. Africa) have had a clear impact on Austria’s engagement. Austria’s focus on Africa has been strengthened, and the use of military as well as civilian assets – from the foreign ministry and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) – has been promoted. Consequently, Austria’s increasing engagement in Mali (MINUSMA, EUTM Mali) and in Western Africa is generally in line with the EUGS. There is also Austrian support for ECOWAS in the fields of humanitarian support training and SSR. Indeed, Austria’s current engagement in Mali can be viewed as a test case for Austria to strengthen a coherent WGA to external engagement.

Third, the EUGS has been setting the framework for the further evolution of internal coordination, cooperation and collaboration in two regards. On the one hand, with regard to increased European integration, the Austrian government adopted in 2017 the report on Austria’s participation in the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), including the participation in four projects and the National Implementation Plan 2017 (Council of Ministers 2017). On the other hand, based on Council Decision (CFSP) 2018/1797 of 19 November 2018 (Council of the European Union 2018), Austria decided to increase its commitment by engaging in two additional projects and taking the lead in one project. What’s more, in addition to implementation of the EUGS, in consultation with five other ministries, the BMEIA prepared a national report to the Council of Ministers on Austria’s contribution to the Civilian Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) compact (BMEIA 2018).

Fourth, Austria has actively contributed to and taken a proactive stance towards discussions of the EU’s Capacity Building in Support of Security and Development (CBSD) initiative, its Instrument for Peace and Stability, and its African Peace Facility.

Finally, Austria’s presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2018 saw successes related to stimulating coherent action at various levels. The first involves the establishment of the Civilian CSDP Compact, which fosters the EU’s capacity to deploy civilian crisis-management missions. The second is related to the fact that the EUGS’s objective of “strengthening of peace and ensuring the security of the EU and its citizens” increasingly blurs the boundary between internal and external security. For this reason, during its presidency, Austria called for flexible and preventive measures to protect the EU’s external borders and to address irregular migration.

Austria Report