Annals: Series on Military Sciences (Dec 2020)
THE ROMANIAN NATIONAL GUARD - 2021
Abstract
The article aims at recalling a less emphasized moment in Romania's military history, namely the role played by the Romanian National Guards in Transylvania, from 1918 to 1919, as bodies meant for ensuring public order and defending the national rights resulting from the application of the principles of self-determination, freedom and national unity, Guards established during November - December 1918, in the lands inhabited by the Romanians, between the Carpathians, Tisa and the Danube, amid the break-up of the AustroHungarian Empire. Although the recruitment was done on a voluntary basis, these Guards had a strong military structure, being made up of Romanian officers and soldiers from the former Austro-Hungarian army and equipped with weapons from the old structures. As an element of continuity, but also as an alternative to the abolition of the compulsory military service, along with the drastic reduction of the number of military personnel - under a critical limit, and against the background of new asymmetric and non-conventional threats to the national security and defense, the author supports the initiative to establish the National Guard of Romania - a structure subordinated to the Ministry of National Defense, as a fourth category of military forces. This approach also aims at capitalizing on the experience of well-trained military personnel – retired now, part of the reserve corps, in the process of reforming the army, criticizing, as uninspired to say the least, the initiative to promote and then to apply the provisions of Law no. 270/2015, on the Status of Voluntary Reservists.
