Bulgaria in NATO:New Roles and Capabilities of the Navy

In a comprehensive manner this article presents roles and missions of Bulgaria’s Navy, and the capabilities it develops to deal with the 21 century security challenges in cooperation with other services, security organizations, and allied navies. In the process of transformation, the Navy has developed ambitious plans to insert advanced technologies, commensurate to its new missions and tasks. This article looks specifically at plans to introduce advanced communications and information technologies in order to achieve required naval capabilities and to facilitate individual, crew, and staff training. New Roles, Missions, and Responsibilities of the Navies Facing 21 st Century Security Challenges Historically, the term ―national security‖ had various specific definitions and dimensions; however, they all had one common meaning – the reliable protection of the territorial integrity and the independence of a sovereign state. The challenge in this respect was how to approach and in what manner to realize this ―national security.‖ The turmoil of the political and societal changes in Europe in the 1990s and thereafter, the dissolution of a number of multinational states, e.g., the Soviet Union and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the unification of Germany, the processes of globalization and unification of Europe, as well as the aggravation of demographic, ecological, economic and social problems and, most importantly, the expansion of the international terrorism and organized crime, brought forward a number of issues related to the notion of national security and the ways to realize it. In the last few years, the notion of national security went beyond the boundaries of a separate state. Of increasing importance are the notions of Individual Security, Collective Security, Bulgaria in NATO: New Roles and Capabilities of the Navy 10 Figure 1: Constituents of the Cooperative Security System. Collective Defense, and Promotion of Stability, constituting a system for common /cooperative/ security (This interaction of terms and notions is presented graphically in Figure 1). Security is based not only on military force and government actions, activities of national institutions and non-governmental organizations within a state, but also on international (bilateral and multilateral) treaties and organizations. In this respect I am proud to state that, since 1991, Bulgaria’s naval forces stand firmly behind the Atlantic idea. The Navy incorporated in its plans variety of activities aimed to increase the confidence and to foster collective security in the Black Sea region and to promote stability. Even prior to the ―Partnership for Peace‖ Initiative, in 1993 Varna hosted the international symposium ―Black Sea Naval Review‖—the first of its kind—on the topic ―The Naval Forces in the New Geopolitical Environment.‖ Under excellent organization, more than 100 participants form 13 countries actively discussed 26 reports. As a continuation of this effort, that same year Bulgaria hosted the first national naval exercise with international participation in the ―Breeze‖ series.