Dr. Glen Browder, Eminent Scholar of American Democracy at Jacksonville State University, recently participated in a seminar conducted in Cape Town for the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa. The seminar, hosted by the Center for Civil-Military Relations (CCMR), provided a forum in which South African MP's, senior defense officials, and senior military officers could analyze unresolved issues for the future of parliamentary oversight of defense and build consensus on measures to strengthen oversight. The program was conducted in cooperation with the United States Mission to South Africa.
The core of this seminar was formed by four crucial unresolved issues. These issues are: refining the purpose of parliamentary oversight; oversight of the defense budget; other possible oversight responsibilities and functions; and organizing for oversight.
The CCMR faculty members introduced topics for analysis with brief presentations on the problems that other democracies, including the United States, have confronted in defense oversight. The facutly members did not, however, attempt to recommend how the South African parliament should resolve its own unique challenges. That remains the responsibility of the participants in the seminar.
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