Bulgarian Military in transition -- the legal framework of democratic civil-military relations

Abstract

The Republic of Bulgaria is situated at the center of a politically and economically unstable region. The changes in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 have provided the countries of that part of the continent an opportunity to reintegrate into the community of democratic nations. Reform of the armed forces, strengthening of civilian control of the military and achieving interoperability with NATO forces are major priorities in the process of admission. One of these priorities is the creation of democratic civilian control over the military. The existence of a clear legal and constitutional framework, defining the relationships between the state and the armed forces has paramount importance for exercising the democratic civilian control over the military. The existence of developed legal framework is probably even more important in the Bulgarian case because of the lack of civil society till 1989 and a law system influenced strongly by the Soviet legal theory. The new Bulgarian Constitution was adopted in 1991, the Defense and Armed Forces Law in the end of 1995 and amended a year later. This thesis represents a study of Bulgarian civil-military relations, legal basis for military activities, and how this legal foundation relates to development of the civil-military relations.