Addressing the Issues in Democratic Civilian Control in Ukraine through Updating the Refresher Course for Civil Servants

Abstract

Finding ways of implementing civilian control in the activity of the armed forces and law enforcement agencies has been a challenge in Ukraine. The purpose of this study was to identify the international best practices to establish relationships between the civil institutions and the military so that those could be adopted in Ukraine. It also sought to update the refresher course for civil servants by introducing two modules that are based on the shortlisted best practices. We used case study research based on the exploratory research strategy and a pilot study to evaluate the feasibility of the updated refresher course for civil servants. The course was delivered offline to 358 civil servants in 2019 and 246 in 2020, and online to 119 in 2021. Forty-five randomly selected students who had completed the course responded to a course satisfaction survey. It was revealed that the process of building civil-military relationships in Ukraine was in the transitional stage. In addition, there was a need for educating and training civil servants in developing legal, regulatory, and procedural frameworks for building civil-military relations and exercising civilian control over the military and law enforcement agencies. The novelty of the study is in updating the curriculum of a refresher course for civil servants and providing recommendations to the government and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Further research is needed in identifying how the public media could contribute to educating citizens on civilian control of the military and law enforcement bodies.