Oil painting Napoleon in Austerlitz, by [French] François Gérard. At the end of 1805, the French army defeated the Russian-Austrian army at Austerlitz, and the military intelligence work that was one step ahead of the other was the key to victory.
"What is a military attaché?" "What is the mission and mission of the military attaché?" "A military attaché is a spy?" For a long time, the military attaché seemed to be shrouded in a veil of mystery. As the only work to date that provides a comprehensive and systematic introduction to the history and work of military attachés, the above questions are answered in the book "Military Attaché".
The author, Alfred Vagts (1892–1986), was a German-American scholar and historian who served in the German Army during World War I and studied history at the University of Hamburg from 1923 to 1932. Watts immigrated to the United States in 1933 and worked for institutions such as Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, served on the U.S. Economic Warfare Council during World War II, and became an independent scholar after the war until his death. Watts' major works include The History of Militarism, Historical and Cultural Studies, Defense and Diplomacy: The Handling of Military and Diplomatic Relations, and Military Attaché.
For example, John Joseph Pershing, the first five-star general in American history, served as the U.S. military attaché to Japan from 1904 to 1905. But in fact, the history of military attachés dates back to 1805, when a captain named De Lagrange was sent by Napoleon to serve as second secretary at the French Legation in Vienna, where he was responsible for understanding and reporting on the movements of the Austrian army. Later, Napoleon also sent officers as diplomats to the French embassies in Constantinople, Tehran and Berlin, on the same mission as Lagrange. This was the prototype of the military attaché, which laid the foundation for the future military attaché system. Military attachés are a product of the modern system of envoys, which have a history of at least two hundred years. Military attachés are actually special officers who perform tasks such as military diplomacy and military intelligence, and military attachés are a professional title and job title for military personnel, and are also a type of diplomatic representative.
One thing, as in international law, is that the prior consent of the host State must be obtained for the dispatch of military attachés from one State to another, while the dispatch of other diplomatic representatives, such as counsellors, is not subject to this restriction, and the sending State can decide for itself, as is the importance of the military attaché's status. Military attachés enjoy full diplomatic privileges and immunities legally and, of course, should abide by universally recognized norms of international law and respect the laws of the host country. Usually, only when an activity incompatible with his or her status is engaged can a military attaché be declared an "undesirable person" by the receiving State and required to leave the country within a limited period of time. In addition, military attaches of various countries stationed in a country may establish military attaché corps. In addition to the general ceremonial activities, the activities of the military attaché corps sometimes have substantive contents, such as the regular arrangement of group visits and trips of the military attaché corps in the host country.
Because the work of military attachés is highly professional, in addition to meeting the professional qualities that ordinary diplomats must have, such as proficiency in common foreign languages and the official language of the host country, they should also be able to play a unique and irreplaceable role in the military field in the process of carrying out daily work in embassies abroad, and truly become military advisers and right-hand men of ambassadors. At the same time, it is also extremely important to maintain good communication and cooperation with other departments of the embassy. During his work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from 2004 to 2005, the author assisted in dealing with some very difficult issues, which included misunderstandings and differences caused by the differences in the structure of the Chinese and foreign armed forces, as well as contradictions and conflicts caused by different provisions of various systems, which must be promptly requested by the leaders of relevant domestic departments under the direct leadership of the ambassador and communicated with all parties. Active liaison in the host country and even use personal relations to coordinate the settlement. The various networks of social relations established in ordinary times will play a major role at this time. "Foreign affairs are no small matter", military attaches, like other diplomatic representatives, always have national interests in their hearts, only in this way can they deal with chaos, be calm and calm, properly cope with various complex challenges, and successfully complete their tasks.
"Military Attaché", January 2021 edition of Jiangsu People's Publishing House, by Alfred Watts, translated by Chen Lefu, and reviewed by Xue Zhoutang
The general titles of the two parts of The Military Attaché are "A Brief History of the Military Attaché" (Chapters 1-9) and "The Field of Work of the Military Attaché" (Chapters 10-18). On the question of the "precursors and origins" of military attachés in the first chapter of Part I, the author of the book writes: "Ambassadors can engage in espionage work themselves when the situation is not complicated, but as the army and navy develop, the requirements for military specialization are increasing, and the government either selects military personnel as ambassadors or assigns ambassadors professional assistants to the ambassadors — army attachés, naval attachés, or air force attachés known as 'spies within spies.'" (p. 4) However, however, military attachés under the "dual leadership" of the diplomatic service and the military deal with relations with the parties is a very sensitive and intractable issue. "No matter how much the later War Department or the General Staff emphasized the independence of the military attaché, the fact that the military attaché had to obey the head of the mission was fully recognized from the outset." (p. 7) When working in the host country, "military attaches must behave and act with caution in a foreign environment, and because their mission is always suspected, their words and deeds must be checked." (p. 15)
Although the book expounds in more detail the historical evolution and scope of work of military attachés, its shortcomings are also relatively obvious: for example, it inappropriately exaggerated the contradictions and even antagonisms between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the military in the entire process of military attaché work, and exaggerated the problems of discord between civilian diplomats and military attaches in the embassy. In fact, in the vast majority of cases, a country's diplomatic work is a whole, requiring people from different departments of the country in the foreign organization to cooperate closely to implement the foreign policy of the sending country and develop friendly relations with the host country. Another minor flaw in this book is that the author is a historian who pays too much attention to historical materials and does not pay enough attention to the regularities revealed in the work of military attachés. For example, in addition to having comprehensive and systematic military expertise, military attaches must also be very knowledgeable in the political, economic, scientific and technological and cultural fields and be good at using legal means to report to the country of presence in the relevant fields. Military attachés should be experts in dealing with various interpersonal relationships, and build a broad and stable network of contacts through daily diplomatic and social activities, thus laying a social foundation for military diplomacy and information gathering. In addition, the unique role of the military attaché's wife cannot be ignored. They usually establish relatively stable contacts, organize groups to participate in various social activities arranged by the host country, such as visiting schools and charities, and often organize national costume shows and cooking exchanges in their own countries, which greatly promotes mutual understanding between the sending country and the host country and helps to improve the level of bilateral relations.
However, returning to reality, regardless of how the mission and mandate of the military attaché changes, the military attaché must carry out his or her task and carry out his work in a lawful manner in the host country, otherwise he or she will bear the legal consequences of committing illegal acts. According to media reports, on October 18, 2019, Russian police arrested three U.S. diplomats, including a naval attaché and two other military attachés, on a train in the city of Severodvinsk. At that time, the train of the three people was just about to pass through an important secret Russian military base, and the Russian side said that although the official travel of the three people had been approved in advance, the destination of the trip approved by the Russian Ministry of Defense was Arkhangelsk, and the three people went to the city of Severodvinsk. History doesn't repeat itself, but sometimes it's strikingly similar, and cases like this are well documented in the history of military attachés, and certainly not the last between the United States and Russia. Therefore, it would be more expedient for military attachés to work within the framework of respect for international law and respect for the laws of the host country, so as not to undermine bilateral relations between the sending and receiving countries.
Author: Sheng Hongsheng (Professor of International Law, Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, Doctor of Laws, former MONUC military expert of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Editor: Su Zhan