Defence and security education is one of the major policies of our Party and State in order to directly contribute to promoting patriotism and raising a sense of vigilance and responsibility of our Party, Military, and people for building a robust all-people national defence and people's security, thereby creating the synergy to protect the Fatherland “early and from far”.

Throughout history, Vietnam has always struggled to fight against the annexation and invasion of foreign forces. Therefore, “protecting the country since it is not in danger” has become a unique national defence experience. Protecting the Fatherland “early and from afar” is an indispensable requirement of our country in the face of complicated developments of the world and regional situation and the sabotage of hostile forces. To meet this requirement, it is necessary to “maximise the synergy of the entire nation and political system in combination with the strength of the times and take full advantage of the international community’s consensus and support”. At the same time, it is essential to closely and synchronously combine many tasks and solutions in terms of economics, politics, culture, society, national defence and security, and foreign affairs, etc. In particular, enhancing defence and security education for cadres, party members and all people is an important prerequisite.

Fully aware of the importance of the above-mentioned issue, the Party and the State have promulgated the Law on National Defence and Security Education and many directives and resolutions on this work. This is considered as an important foundation for defence and security education and training in the new period to be conducted in a disciplined and effective manner, making contributions to raising awareness and responsibility of all cadres, party members and people for the cause of national defence. However, in the execution process, there are still many shortcomings. Specifically, the implementation of the National Defence and Security Education Councils in some localities has not satisfied the requirements. Additionally, cooperation between agencies and organisations has not been close enough here and there. Some aspects of educational programs, contents, forms and measures have not kept up with the development of the actual situation. Furthermore, there has been a shortage of teachers with high quality. Besides, the dissemination of defence and security knowledge to the people, especially in border areas, islands, remote and isolated areas has still faced many difficulties, etc.

Therefore, in order to successfully realise the Party’s viewpoints on protecting the Homeland “early and from afar”, it is essential to perform well a number of points as follows:

First of all, raise awareness and responsibility of cadres, party members and people for national defence and security task in the new situation. This is of the utmost importance to carry out the strategy of protecting the Homeland “early and from afar”. Only when cadres, party members and the entire people are imbued with patriotic tradition and clearly see the value of peace and independence will they raise their awareness, responsibility and actively participate in the cause of defending the Fatherland, creating a solid wall to prevent and eliminate any threats of war and conflict. Therefore, it is necessary to continue: “Strengthening the work of propagating, educating, and raising the awareness and responsibility of the whole Party and our people for the task of national defence and security. Attention should be paid to closely combing defence and security education with political education and legal dissemination so as to make all cadres, party members and people understand the strategic significance of national defence and security education in defence and military work. Doing this practically contributes to building political-spiritual potential and “people’s hearts and minds” posture, laying the foundation for building the solid all-people national defence, all-people defence posture associated with the people’s security posture.

Second, strengthen the leadership of the Party and the effectiveness of the State’s management from Central to local levels in the work of defence and security education. This is a principle and a regular task of the party committees, authorities, and national defence and security education councils at all levels, which is clearly defined in Article 5 of the Law on National Defence and Security Education (2013). National defence and security education must be under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and this work is responsibility of the political system and the entire people, in which the State plays the leading role. Well implementing this principle contributes to building and promoting the posture of “people’s hearts and minds”, firmly consolidating all-people national defence posture and people’s security posture for the cause of national defence. Thus, it needs to mobilise the participation of the whole political system, increase the effectiveness of party committee leadership, the management of authorities and heads of agencies and organisations in educating and fostering defence and security knowledge in a synchronous and consistent manner. Moreover, party committees, authorities and heads of agencies and organisations should actively review, supplement and execute plans, programs and projects on defence and security education for the target subjects in line with characteristics and conditions of their agencies and localities. The results of this work can be taken as a criterion to evaluate the leadership and management capacity of the party committees, party organisations, authorities and leading cadres at all levels. Significance is attached to promoting the advisory role of military and police bodies in the cooperation with other departments, branches and mass organisations.

Third, continue renovating programs and contents of educating and fostering national defence and security knowledge in accordance with the subjects and requirements of reality. Today, the situation in the world and the region has seen unpredictable changes with rapid and complicated developments, causing difficulties and challenges to the assurance of national defence and security of countries. Disputes over sovereignty, territories, seas and islands, especially in the East Sea continue to be more complicated and drastic. The concept of friends and enemies transforms quickly and is difficult to predict. Enemy forces continue intensifying the strategy of “peaceful evolution”, inciting riots and subversion, and promoting “self-evolution”, “self-transformation”, “de-politicisation” of the Army with more sophisticated tricks, causing many difficulties for the task of protecting the Homeland. Therefore, it is required to continue renovating programs and contents of educating and fostering national defence and security knowledge in conformity with each subject and practical situation. In particular, due regard should be paid to opportunely supplementing and updating the Party’s new viewpoints on national defence, security and Fatherland protection, especially the 13^th National Congress views, Strategy for Fatherland Protection in the new situation, Vietnam’s National Defence Strategy, Vietnam’s Military Strategy, Strategy for Fatherland Protection in cyberspace and new promulgated specialised strategies. Plus, it is essential to continue educating patriotism, requirements and tasks of Fatherland protection in the new situation and raise the awareness of friends and enemies. In parallel with that, consideration should be given to updating the development of advanced military science and technology, modern materiel, new military doctrines, and new combat methods in the world today. Besides, it is needed to expose the plots and tricks of hostile forces and actively struggle to defeat them. Thereby, the awareness, responsibility, and consensus in performing national defence and security are enhanced.

Fourth, standardise and improve the quality of teachers in charge of defence and security education. Over the past years, this contingent has gradually been standardised with increasing quality, especially at military training institutions, contributing to raising the quality of this work. However, due to the particularities, the planning and training work faces many difficulties. The teaching staff structure still witnesses many inadequacies with unequal qualifications, capacity, experience, and methods. To meet the requirements of reality, it is crucial to continue supplementing and perfecting the standards of teachers in charge of defence and security education, step up the work of developing teacher resources, and heighten the quality of teacher training. Furthermore, value should be attached to doing well the consolidation of teaching staff with sufficient quantity and high quality, building a payroll with a reasonable recruitment priority policy, and paying attention to arranging and using the contingent of teachers, especially seconded officers at training institutions. It is also necessary to strengthen training and fostering to improve capacity, qualifications and methods for teachers and fully prepare conditions to open post-graduate training major in defence and security education, creating a basis for enhancing the quality and speed up the standardisation of teachers.

Protecting the Fatherland “early and from afar” is both the viewpoint and the guiding motto of the Party, which needs to be thoroughly grasped and creatively implemented by the totality of tasks and solutions. In which, enhancing the work of defence and security education is a matter of great importance in order to unify awareness, thought and action, create a basis for building the posture of “people’s hearts and minds” firmly, and maintain a peaceful and stable environment for the development of the country.

Col., Dr BUI DINH TIEP, Political Academy, Ministry of National Defence