Rules of engagement

Rules of Engagement (RoE ) to German rules of engagement call mission-related rules for armed forces on the use of military force in the context of global national and multinational military operations - both in armed conflicts and in peace-keeping missions of the United Nations. They carry legal, political, military-strategic and operating goals, as they are fixed as in the Status of Forces Agreement ( SOFA ), invoice.

General

The ROE are from the NATO defined as follows: " instructions issued by an authorized military leaders, defining the circumstances and limits are established, under which begin military forces fighting with other forces or allowed to continue. " Our goal is not here, tactical providing guidance. Rather, they serve as an aid, since they regulate general behaviors, such as carrying weapons or response to hostile acts. For each application, the ROE to be adjusted to be adequately meet the requirements.

ROE can not expand existing law, they can at best be further limited. Unlawful conduct can not (even retroactively) are legitimized by ROE.

Pocket Cards

In general, give this so-called pocket cards that carry the soldiers in the field with you at all, the implementation of the task from the international mandate again and show the permitted measures to apply military force to enforce the order as well as the self-defense or self-defense dar. Above all, the use of firearms and the principle of proportionality, as will be explained. They also contain general prohibitions and requirements arising from international law and national regulations. The soldiers are informed of the contents of the pocket cards, thereby placing them at the service legally binding command.

International coordination process

In NATO and EU there are complex coordination processes to the RoE. In NATO, the supreme decision-making body is the North Atlantic Council ( NATO Council ), which adopts a referral to the commander of NATO forces in Europe ( Supreme Allied Commander Europe, SACEUR ) with policy framework. This developed with the Chiefs of Staff of the armed forces of NATO countries, an operational concept, a plan of operations and finally application-specific ROE, everything. Respectively under constant approval by the NATO Council The individual governments have the opportunity to influence the design of the RoE in this process. Thus, the ROE can not be reduced to the lowest common denominator, the individual states have the right to set a more restrictive approach (eg by virtue of national law or bonds of a given by a national parliamentary mandate ) for their own military unit.

Trivia

In the feature film Rules - seconds of the decision rules of engagement with the U.S. Military will be discussed in part on film.