In response to the increasingly demanding requirements set by the Homeland protection, the Institute for Defence Strategy has been concentrating all effort on improving the quality of strategic military-defence research and staff work to safeguard the Homeland in the new situation.

The Institute for Defence Strategy (IDS) whose forerunner was the Institute for Military Strategy was founded on January 11^th, 1990. It was initially assigned to study and submit military strategies and recommendations to the Party, the State, the Central Military Commission (CMC), and the Ministry of National Defence (MND). To keep pace with the development of the country and the Homeland protection in the new situation, on April 25^th, 2011, the Prime Minister announced the Decision 616/QĐ-TTg on reorganising the Institute for Military Strategy into the IDS. According to the Decision, the IDS would be developed into a national centre for military-defence studies under the direct leadership and direction from the CMC and the MND. Since then, it has been mainly tasked with studying and counselling defence guidelines and policies as well as theories and directions for the development of military-defence strategies. Besides, it has been assigned to take part in military diplomatic activities.

Over the past 30 years of construction and development, thanks to its cadres’ political responsibility, enthusiasm, creativity, and dedication, the IDS has undertaken hundreds of strategic-level researches greatly contributing to building the Military, consolidating national defence, and protecting the Homeland. Researches by the IDS have clarified many issues and provided important scientific grounds for the Party and the State to formulate the guidelines for the military-defence work and the Homeland protection, such as “Combating the hostile forces’ peaceful evolution strategy,” “Scientific grounds for the national defence and security strategies in the new period,” “The Homeland protection during the country’s industrialisation and modernisation process,” and “Vietnam’s military doctrine.” Grasping security and political developments on a regional and global scale, the Party’s military-defence guidelines, and the State’s law and policy, the IDS has directly drawn up and submitted the Vietnam’s National Defence White Paper (1998, 2004, 2009, and 2019) to the CMC, the MND, and the Politburo for approval and release. The document has clearly expressed the nature of peace and self-defence of Vietnam’s national defence and helped build up confidence among the international community, neighbours and regional countries. The IDS has also directly designed the Vietnam Military Strategy and the Vietnam National Defence Strategy, while cooperating with national strategic offices, ministries and sectors in devising specialised strategies and military-defence projects, and studying new forms of warfare, issues on border, seas, and islands, the building of the all-people national defence, and the guidelines on the people’s war in the new period, thereby making significant contributions to developing the Party’s military art in the new revolutionary period.

At present, the situation in the world and the region still has complex, unpredictable developments. Major powers are cooperating, negotiating, and competing with one another, while intervening in some countries’ internal affairs. The 4^th industrial revolution creates good opportunities but poses a lot of challenges. Non-traditional security challenges, especially the COVID-19 pandemic continue to be complicated. Domestically, the hostile forces are enhancing their sabotage scheme comprehensively and promoting “peaceful evolution,” “self-evolution,” and “self-transformation,” while seeking ways to “depoliticise” our armed forces. Hence, the IDS should raise the quality of strategic research and counselling on the military-defence task and the Homeland protection, with a focus on the following.

First, comprehend the Party’s viewpoints, the State’s law and policy, and the direction by the CMC and the MND on strategic research and staff work. The IDS will keep grasping the 11^th Party Central Committee’s Resolution 28-NQ/TW, dated October 25^th, 2013 on the Strategy for the Homeland protection in the new situation, the Party Central Committee’s Resolution 37-NQ/TW, dated October 9^th, 2014 on the theoretical work and orientations for research towards 2030, and the CMC’s Resolution 347-NQ/TW, dated May 23^rd, 2015 on improving the quality of strategic defence research, forecast, and counselling towards 2020 and beyond. In the research process, it is necessary to master the Party’s new thoughts and directions for the Homeland protection, especially the issues on the Vietnamese revolution’s partners and opponents, on the protection of the Homeland from afar, on the resolute, persistent defence of national independence, unification, and territorial integrity, on the building of a firm posture of “people’s hearts and minds,” and on the combination of economic, cultural, social development, diplomacy, and defence-security consolidation. Besides, the IDS will proactively study, assess, and correctly anticipate domestic, regional and global situations so that the CMC and the MND will opportunely advise the Party and the State on remedial measures so as to avoid passivity and prevent differences and disputes from developing into armed conflicts or wars. Great value will be attached to proposing overall, short-term, medium-term, long-term solutions to prevent the risks of war and conflict from afar, particularly in the East Sea and the Southwest Sea.

Second, keep up to date with situational changes and the development of the Homeland protection to enhance the quality of strategic research and staff work. Our country’s national construction and protection history together with 30 years of our revolutionary wars and 35 years of our national renewal have provided us with many valuable lessons, such as strategies for building and defending the nation, organising, preparing, and conducting a people’s war, developing the art of strategic combat, managing the relationship between the two strategic tasks of national construction and defence, promoting the all-people synergy, combining the national strength with the strength of the times, and building the People’s Army, the all-people national defence, and the posture of all-people national defence. Therefore, in each research, cadres of the IDS must be imbued with lessons on wars against foreign invaders and on national construction, development and protection, while internalising the world’s cultural and military quintessence and mastering the development of the Homeland defence in the new situation, especially the guidelines on building a revolutionary, regular, elite, gradually modern People’s Army, modernising a number of forces, streamlining the Army’s organisational structure, and modernising the Army from 2030.

Furthermore, the IDS will grasp political, military, defence and security transformations on a global and regional scale, particularly in hot spots. Doing so will enable cadres of the IDS to make accurate strategic analyses, evaluations, and forecasts. Also, the IDS will actively cooperate with research centres of other ministries and the country, with research institutes from other countries and traditional friends, and with international organisations and even world-class scientists in exchanging information and anticipating the situation, particularly the issues relating to the Military build-up, national defence consolidation, and the Homeland protection.

Third, build a contingent of strategic researchers and consultants on a par with their task. To meet the task requirements, cadres of the IDS must have loyalty, creative thinking, enthusiasm, and good skills in research. Moreover, they must be carefully recruited and fundamentally, highly trained at academies and universities both inside and outside the Military in order that they will have expert military-defence knowledge and wide hands-on experience to become top military researchers. Besides, they must have a good command of management and foreign languages for diplomatic missions. To that end, it is essential to well organise on-the-spot refresher courses and assign researches to cadres of the IDS in order to improve their knowledge, skills, and methodology. At the same time, due attention should be paid to allowing cadres of the IDS to attend meetings of Science Councils and scientific workshops, maintaining regulations on practical research at units and localities, and even deploying them to study overseas, especially in major powers and developed countries.

Fourth, actively apply the achievements of the 4^th industrial revolution to strategic research and staff work. The 4^th industrial revolution has been profoundly impacting on various aspects the social life, including the military-defence field. Hence, the IDS will widely apply technological and technical advances to referencing and digitalising documents, establishing internal database, interpreting at bilateral and multilateral conferences, translating defence, security, military documents in foreign languages into Vietnamese, and presenting demonstrations, wars, and exercises so as to facilitate its cadres’ research. It will also apply information technology to online workshops and conferences, while requiring its cadres to project films, images, and video clips during the conferences to defend their theses. At the same time, it will help its cadres to collect information and obtain a panorama of an incident. Utilisation of technological achievements will help overcome weaknesses in the quality of documents, films, and images, thus providing fidelity materials for researches by cadres of the IDS.

In the past 30 years, under the leadership and direction from the CMC and the MND, the IDS has successfully fulfilled its assigned task, many of its missions have been excellently performed. Bringing into play its tradition and achievements, the IDS will determine to make itself comprehensively strong and capable of making great contributions to building the Military, consolidating national defence, and protecting the Homeland.

Maj. Gen., Associate Prof. VU CUONG QUYET, PhD

Head of the IDS