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Romania Government and Party Organization for Defense
The GNA has constitutional responsibility for national
security
and the authority to declare war or a national emergency,
to order
mobilization, to ratify an armistice or peace treaty, to
appoint
the supreme commander of the armed forces, and to award
the ranks
of marshal, general, and admiral. When the GNA is not in
session,
however, the Council of State assumes these powers and
Ceausescu,
as chairman of the latter, wielded these powers
effectively. The
small circle of Ceausescu, his family, and his closest
political
associates exercised real national security and defense
policymaking authority, requesting and using expert advice as
they deemed
necessary.
Composed of party and state officials, the Defense
Council
examined and coordinated all problems related to national
security,
including both external defense and internal security. It
provided
strategic direction to the armed forces, supervised
militaryrelated industries, and made national military and
economic
mobilization plans to be executed by the Council of State.
In
addition to Ceausescu, the Defense Council also included
the prime
minister, minister of national defense, chief of the
Higher
Political Council of the Army, chief of staff of the
Patriotic
Guards, minister of interior, minister of foreign affairs,
and
chairman of the State Planning Committee. The chief of the
General
Staff of the armed forces served as secretary to the
Defense
Council. Theoretically responsible to the GNA and the
Council of
State, the Defense Council directly advised Ceausescu on
national
security and defense issues.
The Defense Council structure also existed at lower
administrative levels. Local party first secretaries
chaired
defense councils in the forty judete (counties) and
some
larger municipalities. Other members included the local
people's
council secretary, commander of the nearest military
garrison, his
political deputy, chief of staff of the Patriotic Guards
for the
area, head of the local Ministry of Interior office, Union
of
Communist Youth (Uniunea Tineretului Comunist--UTC)
officials, and
directors of major economic enterprises in the area. In
peacetime
local defense councils had responsibility for organizing
all
resources and productive capacity under their authority,
for making
local mobilization plans to fulfill national defense
requirements,
and for operating the military conscription system. In
wartime they
were charged with maintaining uninterrupted, or restoring
disrupted, militarily essential production.
In contrast to the policy-making authority and
strategic
control exercised by the PCR hierarchy and the Defense
Council, the
Ministry of National Defense had day-to-day administrative
authority over the armed forces in peacetime and was
responsible
for implementing PCR policies within them. In peacetime
the general
staff made provisional strategic and operational plans,
based on
general guidance from the Defense Council, coordinated the
actions
of the armed services, and exercised operational and
tactical
control of the armed forces as a whole.
The Ministry of National Defense comprised several
directorates
and other organizations
(see
fig. 6). The Directorate for
Military
Intelligence (Directia de Informatii a Armatei--DIA)
provided the
General Staff with assessments of the strategic intentions
of the
NATO and Warsaw Pact countries and monitored indications
and
warnings of imminent hostilities against Romania. The
Directorate
for Military Publishing operated the Military Publishing
House and
published the monthly armed forces journal Viata
Militara
(Military Life) and the daily military newspaper
Apararea
Patrei (Defense of the Homeland). Several directorates
of the
Ministry of National Defense had extensive
interconnections with
civilian ministries, especially ones that supplied the
armed forces
matériel, armaments, and logistical support. For example,
in 1989
a Romanian admiral headed the Department of Naval
Transportation
within the civilian Ministry of Transportation and
Telecommunications. In wartime other important ministries
like it
would be subordinated to the Ministry of National Defense.
The
Higher Political Council of the Army enjoyed a unique,
somewhat
autonomous status within the Ministry of National Defense.
It
operated as part of the latter but was subordinate to the
PCR
Central Committee. The Center for Studies and Research in
Military
History and Theory examined Romania's military experience
as an
input to the formulation of strategic and operational
plans by the
general staff.
Data as of July 1989
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