The pain of reform
Lessons from the Russian experience.
When the industrial-age armed forces of a welfare state undergo reform and restructuring, the pain is felt by the large number of officers made redundant by the exercise.
The plan seeks to transform an impoverished, unwieldy conscript army built to fight a protracted war in Europe into a more nimble, battle-ready force that can respond quickly to regional conflicts. Key to the overhaul is a drastic reduction in the number of officers, who now account for nearly one in three Russian servicemen.
By eliminating thousands of officer-only units that were designed to call up draftees in wartime, and moving to a leaner, brigade-based structure, Medvedev intends to cut Russia’s officer corps from 355,000 to 150,000, dismissing more than 200 generals, 15,000 colonels and 70,000 majors.[WaPo]
Russian economy is slackening and while that is perhaps a good reason for Moscow to downsize the Soviet-era armed forces, it also makes the transition even more painful for those left rendered homeless and jobless by this restructuring. In hindsight, it can be safely said that if a similar exercise had been undertaken a couple of years back — when the oil-fuelled Russian economy was booming — it would have caused lesser heartburn. And the adverse social and political fallouts could have been contained in a more peaceful manner.
So, there are two lessons for those looking at military reform and restructuring in the Indian context. One, the best time to undertake military reform is when the economy is booming. And two, the earlier it is done, the easier it is to contain the social and political fallouts of this painful exercise. The Indian political leadership — and its bureaucratic advisers — must understand that while the problem of military reform and restructuring is organisational, its solution is political.
Don’t agonize. Organize. ~Florynce Kennedy
Goes only to show that how closely interlinked are the armed forces of a nation to its destiny . Additionally , there is a need to look at the personnel of the armed forces with a sympathetic eye !! After all , they too are humans !!
[...] “Pragmatic Euphony” blog agrees, writing that reforms would have been more successful years ago: The Russian [...]
“So, there are two lessons for those looking at military reform and restructuring in the Indian context”
I don’t think any restructuring/reforms in AF’s are being contemplated.National priority should be to carry out reforms/restructuring in MOD/Civil services/Police/all other similar currupt setups.But then you need tough Netas to kickstart the willy Baboos.
Reforms are continuous process as per need based requirements.Armed forces or the countries which do not have or donot see prolonged battles,may require reforms,to reduce ex-checker’s money spending on military, and perhaps will look for a minimum deterance force.Where as for countries like India the threat to the Nation is howering in abig way.Fool hardy decision by either India or Pakistan or China and to that matter even Bangladesh,would result in a total war.The situation in south Asia is more or less is same. so no question of reforms that will result in reduction of either officers or other ranks.Yes one can hope to reduce the ratio between teeth to tail .Indian armed forces have large tail,which can be reduced.