Capt. Jane Dalton, Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the (U.S.) Joint Chiefs of Staff; Capt. Glenn Gonzalez, Force Judge Advocate, HQ, Commander Naval Air Pacific, U.S.; and Mr. Harvey Dalton, Associate Deputy General Counsel (Intelligence), (U.S.) Department of Defense.

Maj. Gen. Mengyun Wang, Deputy Secretary General, People’s Liberation Army, China, poses with Dr. Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov, Counselor, Constitutional Court, and Lt.-Gen. Gennady Zolotukhin, Head, Administrative Directorate, Ministry of Defense, both of Russia.

Russian Law and the Military

During a working lunch, Lt. Gen. Gennady A. Zolotukhin, Chief of Legal Services of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, explained the role of the Russian Armed Forces Legal Services in the development of national legislation. Dr. Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov, Counselor/Associate Professor of International Law, Russian Constitutional Court, followed with his views on the role of the court in protecting the rights of active duty and retired servicemen.

Rules of Engagement

In two following sessions, conferees divided into small seminar groups and received the following problem: As a joint task force, establish a common set of rules of engagement (ROE) for self-defense and mission accomplishment. Then, apply the ROE to various scenarios and examine concomitant issues such as individual regional interpretations and compatibility with customs, culture and national guidance. The seminar aimed to develop an understanding of other countries’ rules of engagement practices, to identify areas of agreement and disagreement, to practice coalition consensus building through seminar discussions, to identify obstacles and challenges, and to apply joint task force rules of engagement.

The diversity of the seminar participants ensured open, lively and thought-provoking discussions. For example, determining situations involving a hostile act, hostile intent, unit self-defense, and declaring forces hostile often made for as many separate opinions as participants present. However, all the groups reached some form of consensus that was presented to the conferees as a whole.