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Spain JURISDICTION OVER NATIONAL DEFENSE
In Francoist Spain, the head of state occupied the
position
of commander in chief of the armed forces. He was, in an
active
sense, at the top of the military hierarchy, linked
directly to
the three services. The ministers of the army, the air
force, and
the navy--customarily officers of three-star
rank--directed the
operations, the training, and the administration of their
respective services to the extent of the authority
delegated to
them by Franco as commander in chief. Under Franco the
National
Defense Council and the Supreme Staff had planning and
coordinating functions without real authority over the
three
services.
After Adolpho Suarez Gonzalez took office in 1976,
replacing
Franco's last prime minister, he set into motion a series
of
measures to convert the command structure into one
resembling
that of other democratic Western nations and to place the
armed
forces unequivocally under the authority of the elected
civilian
government. The chairman of the Supreme Staff, Lieutenant
General
Manuel Gutierrez Mellado, was entrusted with this task,
for which
he was appointed deputy prime minister responsible for
defense.
Gutierrez Mellado acted vigorously to introduce a host of
reforms, the first of which was to replace the chairman of
the
Supreme Staff by transferring his powers to a newly
created Joint
Chiefs of Staff (Junta de Jefes de Estado Mayor--JUJEM),
comprised of the three service chiefs and a chairman. By a
royal
decree in June 1977, the three service ministries were
replaced
by a single Ministry of Defense. Gutierrez Mellado became
the
first minister of defense; when he retired two years
later, a
civilian assumed the portfolio.
The new ministry was given the task of preparing
organizational alternatives for the government to consider
in the
areas of national defense and the execution of military
policy. A
further stage in the transition was reached with the
promulgation
of the new 1978 Constitution, which, in Article 8, states
that:
1. The Armed Forces, consisting of the army, the navy, and
the
air force, have as their mission the guarantee of the
sovereignty
and independence of Spain, the defense of its territorial
integrity, and the constitutional order.
2. An organic law will regulate the bases of the military
organization, in conformity with the principles of the
present
Constitution.
Article 97 establishes that "The government directs
domestic and
external policy, the civil and military administration,
and the
defense of the state. Exercise of the executive function
and
jurisdiction will be by regulation in accordance with the
Constitution and the laws."
The language of the new Constitution affirms that
responsibility for defense and for military policy is to
be under
the authority of the civilian government. The new
definition of
the armed forces clearly distinguishes them from the
forces of
public order, i.e., the Civil Guard and the police, which
had
been treated as part of the armed forces under the
applicable
organic law of the previous regime. Allocation to the
armed
forces of the responsibility to defend the constitutional
order
was intended to reassert the role of the military in
internal
security and to underscore the illegality of actions
contrary to
the democratic system.
In conformity with Article 8.2 of the Constitution,
Organic
Law 6 was promulgated on July 1, 1980. It allocates
authority in
matters concerning national defense and the military
establishment, declaring that the king is the supreme
commander
of the armed forces and the presiding officer of the
National
Defense Council at sessions that he attends, and that the
government, headed by the prime minister, is to determine
defense
policy. It names the National Defense Council, to include
both
civilian and military officials, as the senior advisory
and
consultative body of the government, with the task of
formulating
and proposing military policy. JUJEM would continue to
serve as
the senior joint military advisory board
(see
fig. 14).
The division of responsibilities set out in the 1980
law
failed to resolve all of the issues involved in the
distribution
of functions; notably, it failed to assure that the
planning of
military requirements took full account of available
resources.
In addition, the powers of the prime minister and the
minister of
defense to supervise the conduct of military operations
were not
clearly defined. Some politicians felt that the military
still
dominated the chain of command.
To deal with these problems, Organic Law 1 of January
5,
1984, introduced certain modifications. It specifically
assigns
to the prime minister the responsibility for defining the
outlines of strategic and military policy, and it
authorizes him
to order, to coordinate, and to direct the implementation
of
military policy by the armed forces. It establishes that
the
minister of defense could exercise various of these
functions as
delegated to him by the prime minister. It modifies the
role of
the JUJEM, confining it to that of a military advisory
body to
both the prime minister and the minister of defense. An
important
innovation is the creation of the post of Chief of the
Defense
Staff (Jefe del Estado Mayor de la Defensa--JEMAD). As the
highest figure in the military hierarchy, the JEMAD is
instructed
to act as principal collaborator to the minister of
defense in
the planning and the execution of the operational aspects
of
military policy. In wartime, the JEMAD would be commander
in
chief of the armed forces, directly responsible for
conducting
military operations.
As explained by the government, the 1984 law formalizes
the
procedure whereby the prime minister and the minister of
defense
are given a preponderant role in carrying out defense
policy and
in integrating the contributions of the individual
branches of
the armed forces. All three service chiefs of staff must
exercise
their commands under the authority of the civilian
leaders; the
law allows for no separate military command whereby the
armed
forces could operate autonomously.
Data as of December 1988
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