CIVIL SECURITY AT THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN DECENTRALISATION AND COORDINATION – THE CASE OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY

Abstract

The increasing importance of protecting the civilian population was confirmed by conflicts in the 20th century, characterised by total use of force and unlimited area of waging war. While these measures during the world wars and cold war era led to the concept of civil defence within a total defence approach (ger. Gesamtverteidigung), changed geostrategic and social environments have also required reform of national security and defence. Modern states are therefore developing systems of civil security as the next stage of civil protection. Their primary task should be to provide the citizen with security in the event of complex crises caused by natural and man-made disasters, as well as terrorist attacks. On the other hand, in many countries there is a marked dichotomy between decentralised and coordinated approaches to system administration (the Federal Republic of Germany is a very good example). While West European systems in the period of the cold war were primary focused on decentralisation, terrorist attack threats and cataclysmic natural disasters in complex societies have exposed coordination of hierarchically and functionally dispersed institutions, especially their information and communication activities, becoming in information age more and more important.