Ministry of Defence (Themiclesia)
| Department overview | |
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| Formed | December 30th, 1963 |
| Superseding agency |
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| Jurisdiction | Themiclesia |
| Headquarters | Dormitory Building, Kien-k'ang, Themiclesia |
| Employees | 56,860 civilian staff (October 2015) |
| Annual budget | OSD$63 bn |
| Minister responsible |
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| Department executives |
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| Parent department | Government of Themiclesia |
| Child agencies | |
The Ministry of Defence (尚書國防部) of Themiclesia is the government department for implementing defence policies set by the the Government of Themiclesia.
The principal objectives of the Ministry of Defence are the defence of Themiclesia and her interests against foreign invasions, the discharge of Themiclesia's military obligations as required by statute and international treaties, and the general maintenance of the peace and stability in Septentrion as directed by the government. The senior and responsible minister of the department, the Secretary of State for Defence, is the country's armed forces' commander-in-chief, though he, as a member of the Government and a cabinet minister, remains under the country's statutory and customary law, cabinet ordinances, and policies made by the government, and further is responsible politically to the country's parliament.
History
Background
The Ministry of Defence superceded the role of at least four distinct ministerial bodies, the Ministry of the Army, the Ministry of the Navy, the Ministry of the Air Force, and the Office for the Co-ordination of Defence. Possible further candidates include the Department of Civil Defence, the Office of Civil Aviation, and the Office of the Left and Right Guards. The need to consolidate the country's defence services, historically and operationally independent, was evident from the outset of the Pan-Septentrion War, though active hostilities during that conflict prevented large-scale, far-reaching reforms from being even seriously considered. It has been fairly well-accepted academically that the country could have performed better during the war had co-ordination between the services been increased, and part of this academic opinion formed the basis of the reforms that brought the modern Ministry of Defence into existence.
Traditionally, the Ministry of War (renamed Ministry of the Army in 1903) was responsible for administering and leading the Army, most often against enemies that approached from Dzhungestan, Maverica, and occasionally from Nukkumaa. The Ministry of the Navy was responsible for all military affairs beyond the Halu'an Sea, to the west of the country, and its egress into the Meridian Ocean; somewhat untrue to the term "navy", the department's portfolio included terranean warfare beyond the seas. Because of this acknowledged geographical delimitation of jurisdiction between the two ministries, co-operation between them had been minimal and temporary. The Air Force, created in 1927, was headed by an independent ministry to prevent its resources being dedicated to only "one side".
Since the Navy held jurisdictional control over terranean warfare on Hemithea west of Themiclesia's western coastline and in Meridia (theoretically in Casaterra as well), it possessed a considerable amount of infantry and other land-based forces. Amongst them were the Maritime Corps (more famously known as Themiclesian Marine Corps), the Port Corps, and the Littoral Corps. When the Army was overstretched for manpower in its battle against expanding Menghean forces in 1935, the Navy (along with its responsible minister) refused to send its infantry to assist the Army in what it called "the Army's region of responsibility"; modern historians have cited this as an excellent example of service sectionalism and, in addition, refusal to surrender resources for fear that the Army might eclipse the Navy's importance. The direct result whereof is the institution of conscription in 1936. Relations between the two services bittered, causing severe waste in duplicated establishments or units standing idle. Inter-service co-operation ground to a halt in 1946, when the Navy asked the Army to build its own ships to ferry its troops from Menghe to Dayashina, since Dayashina was on "that side of Hemithea"; only the passage of a statute brought the Navy into line. In reality, the heavy expected losses in ships and men in Operation Downfall could have presented itself as the primary cause of the Navy's reluctance to lend assistance.
Precursors
After the PSW, the Cabinet studied the possibility of placing the three services under a command authority other than itself. All three defence ministers disagreed, but other ministers were generally in favour, if only for dramatically shortening cabinet agenda. The Prime Minister, in particular, was noted to have a particular distaste for making military decisions as often as he did during the war, and often without impartial advice. In 1951, he secretly commissioned the Dean of the Department of Arts of Pondside University to study the situation, in particular, "formation of a civilian or military authority, answerable to Cabinet, that did not belong to any of the three services". The military option was quickly ruled out, as the Dean pointed out by letter, "all service persons retain, as second nature, a preference or disposition in favour of his native service. Any office composed of service persons, by definition, cannot be free of sectionalism." This statement has been definitional in forming the future Ministry of Defence as a primarily civilian authority.
The general practice during the war, for inter-service communication, was for each service to station a senior officer in the imperial palace (the seat of the government) permanently, to act as a conduit between the minister and the chief of the service. With the minister's permission, the officer could confer with his counterpart from another service, usually in the presence of both involved ministers. Social propriety during the early stages of the war largely prevented the inclusion of more military officers in these informal meetings, as they could not be admitted to the palace, and without formal minutes, accepted conclusions often failed to receive the same support at Cabinet. According to one such officer from the Army, he was given a thick brief every morning by his service chief and was instructed to obtain the Navy's "advised and considered assent" on hundreds of items, and the ensuing meeting could last more than 20 hours when the Navy officer's brief was also tabled. Both officers would be speaking over telephones to their service chiefs, to relay the interlocutor's response for further consideration. Commentators have found this to be one of the greatest absurdities in the conduct of the war, since the same task in other countries would have been done by dozens of officers, over multiple channels of communication.
Formation
After extensive consultation and deliberation, the Government introduced the Ministry of Defence Act to the nation's parliament at the end of 1962. The bill's preamble contained the somewhat contradictory language of:
...under the precept of the administrative and structural independence of the army, navy, and air defence services, to provide for the integration operational matters amongst them...
To ensure the support of the defence ministers, the bill did not fundamentally change the structure of any of the three ministries. Columnist Mark Leonard, writing on the Diplomat, called the formation of the Ministry "essentially a matter of renaming the existing ministries and packing them into the shell of another ministry". The new Secretary of State for Defence, upon the opening of his ministry in 1963, found that he could not control the existing defence ministers, since he had no independent source of information, and all of his decisions had to be implemented by the ministers whose places in Cabinet had been removed in his favour. Cabinet resolutions were still the only instrument that will quell the service ministers. Leonard was proven right when the organizational chart for the Ministry appeared in foreign media, showing that the Ministry employed more than the sum total of its three predecessors.
Continued Reforms
To facilitate communication between the three ex-ministries, the Under-Secretary of State for Co-ordination chaired the Co-ordination Committee with service ministers and their service chiefs, to ensure compliance with defence policy and co-operation between the services. Afterwards, it was decided that the role of the Under-Secretary should be a professional one, instead of a ministerial one; briefly the Government considered placing the Permanent Secretary in that position, but the service ministers objected on the grounds of burdening the Permanent Secretary with matters outside of his professional training.
As a compromise, a board consisting of the Minister of State, the three service ministers, three service chiefs, the Permanent Secretary, and the Under-Secretary of State of Finance, totalling nine members, was created in 1970. Joint operations were handled by this body directly, or through a sub-committee reporting to it; in every case, consensus was required for the body to make decisions. In the event that a member disagrees, the matter would be "reserved" for the attention of the Secretary of State. Eventually, a separate staff office also grew around this committee, filled with a complement of officers from all three services. However, the Minister of State was not able to lead the discussion, even though he represented the Secretary of State.
Current Structure
The Secretary of State is the leading minister of the body; a Minister of State (侍郎, in older works "attendant-officer") supports him and deputizes for him in his absence. Under the Minister there are three Under-Secretaries of State (郎中, also "meridian-officer"), who head the three defence services. The Minister of State and each Under-Secretary of State has an Assistant-Secretary of State (員外郎, also "supernumerary-officer") as his ministerial deputy. There are additional Under- and Assistant-Secretaries of State overseeing finance, procurement, and (until 1970) co-ordination of the services.
The non-ministerial staff of the entire Ministry of Defence is under the purview of the Permanent Secretary (丞, also "secretary"), who is the professional head of the Ministry. He ranks as an Under-Secretary of State. Under him are Deputy Secretaries (都令史, also "chief directing administrator") leading the several civilian departments responsible for finance, procurement, technological development, recruitment, and other functions.