Poland’s new National Security Strategy has been prompted primarily due to external conditions, the emergence of new threats or rather the escalation of threats that were already known six years earlier, has said Professor Tadeusz Czekalski
By Genc Mlloja
Senior Diplomatic Editor
There are some months now that Poland has a new National Security Strategy (NSS), which has recently been approved by President Andrzej Duda. The document signed by him on May 12, 2020 presents a new approach to the issue of national security and unveils the national interests and strategic goals of Poland. It also identifies the main threats to country’s security and their potential sources, including the coronavirus pandemic.
“The preparation of this document took a couple of years. The document revolves around the changes that took place over the past five years and the reality that we experience today and on which we must act while also looking into the future,” President Duda has said following the signing of the strategy as quoted by Polish media. (polandin.com, IAR, Polskie Radio, 12.05.2020)
The strategy outlines the potential threats to Poland’s security. It breaks down to several strands, namely political, military, economy, energy, social security and climate threats. The document had been in the making for the past two years until it was approved by the Council of Ministers on April 30, 2020. Designed by the National Security Bureau (BBN) and the Defense Ministry, the strategy takes into account the newest threat that SARS-CoV-2 turned out to be. The aspects of dealing with the epidemic and state responsivity to similar crises have been paid a great deal of attention in the document.
In this context, the term “state resistance” has been applied. According to the strategy, “state resistance” is improved when the development of the healthcare system is continued. That is why this issue was put down in the document as one that needed addressing. Also, the need to develop public administration structures as a way to mitigate epidemiological threats was stressed. The National Security Strategy also acknowledges the need to construct a diagnostics backbone, accumulate protective equipment reserves and develop the domestic production of such items.
As it is officially reported the strategy will serve as the centerpiece for detailed guidelines on the development directions of Poland’s national security. The documents that will branch out from the publicly-available strategy will be classified. The last document similar to the National Security Strategy was composed in 2014. At that time, according to Polish officials, the threats stemming from the Russian Federation, its imperial policies and the events of and pertinent to the annexation of Crimea did not feature in the document.
Given the importance of such a document I had a conversation on some aspects of NSS with Tadeusz Czekalski, Associate Professor of Contemporary History, Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
Professor Czekalski is a well- known researcher on the course of the relations between Poland and Albania, and he made a presentation on the historical aspects of this relationship in an event organized by AIIS and Polish Embassy in Tirana on May 3, 2017.
No mass epidemic in Poland…
Given the ongoing coronavirus crisis which has hit the world with a devastating impact, at the outset of the conversation Professor Czekalski said a few words on Poland’s experience where, according to him, COVID-19 had arrived with a slight delay in relation to the most endangered countries of Western Europe.
As he said, fortunately it did not cause such a mass epidemic as observed in Italy, Spain or Great Britain.
“In Poland, restrictions on the movement of the population and the sanitary regime were introduced quite quickly, and the vast majority of the population subordinated to the restrictions. The largest number of infections was recorded in hospitals, where in many cases there was a lack of effective personal protective equipment, as well as in care facilities for the elderly and in mines. At present, the number of illnesses in Poland has exceeded 40,000 and the number of deaths is higher than 1, 600,” Professor Czekalski said.
New NSS prompted by external conditions
In his comment on the need to introduce a new National Security Strategy, Professor Czekalski was of the opinion that it was prompted primarily due to external conditions, the emergence of new threats or rather the escalation of threats that were already known six years earlier.
“Compared to the 2014 Strategy, the new document is shorter and gives much more importance to certain issues, such as the threat from Russia and close cooperation with the US,” he said. The Professor is of the opinion that the awareness of the threat from Russia seems to him to be common in the Polish society, but there are different assessments of the scale of this threat. “A state that regularly provokes the Polish authorities and undermines established facts from Polish history is ideally suited to the role of an external enemy, indispensable in the propaganda of the ruling party,” he said.
In the meantime, he thinks that dependence of Polish foreign policy on the United States has deepened. “This increase in dependence on Washington also reflects the National Security Strategy of 2020,” said Professor Czekalski. In addition, according to him, Poland’s cooperation with NATO is focused on its American ally, and not on the military-political cooperation of European countries, which is crucial for the continent’s future.
Regional cooperation valuable element of European collaboration
In Czekalski’s view the regional cooperation is an extremely valuable element of European cooperation, provided that it is part of European cooperation and not competitive with it.
“I am concerned that, in the face of the deepening crisis of the European Union, the use of regional cooperation to pursue its own particular interests may deepen the European crisis. In the face of competition with the major players in international politics – Russia, China or the United States – the decentralization of the European Union inevitably leads to the marginalization of Europe,” he noted.
Answering a question on Polish Presidency of Visegrad Group (2020-2021) the Professor says Poland can be seen as the dominant country in this Group, but however, this does not mean that it is able to impose its vision of policy on the other countries. “For example, none of the other V4 countries expose a clear critical attitude towards Russia, and Hungary is one of the countries that favors Moscow’s policy,” said Professor Czekalski.
The 2020 NSS places crucial importance on Poland’s involvement in missions and operations abroad led by NATO, EU, UN, OSCE, as well as those carried out as part of coalitions. Answering a question on how vital is the engagement in such activities for Poland’s external security the Professor said: “Poland’s participation in missions and operations abroad can be seen as a factor in the prestige of the Polish state and an opportunity to gain experience in eliminating threats and adapting the Polish army to the modern battlefield. With such significant involvement, however, the question arises whether the effects of such actions and the political and economic benefits are adequate to the costs incurred and whether Poland can afford such a military effort.”
The adoption of Poland’s NSS has coincided in time with the presentation of Romania’s new national defense strategy for 2020–2024. It is obvious that in the two documents the Russian Federation is defined as a “threat”.
Given the expertise of Professor Czekalski as historian I asked him if he saw in the above mentioned documents the concern of former Warsaw Treaty member countries towards alleged Kremlin’s hegemonic tendencies. His comment on this was: “It is obvious that the feeling of threat of Russian domination is returning in the countries that belonged to the Soviet Bloc in the past, and Russia consciously and consistently fuels such a feeling of threat… It is also worth remembering that in the past, both Poland and Romania incurred exceptionally high costs of Russian/Soviet domination – both in territorial, economic and human dimensions. The effects of Moscow’s domination in the past have been felt in both countries to this day.”
The Professor of contemporary history, Czekalski highlighted in conclusion of the conversation the importance of the existence of a number of institutions in Europe dealing with the idea of European unity without threatening Union’s member states.
“Today we have a number of institutions in Europe which, in my opinion, put into practice the idea of European unity without threatening the sovereignty of the member states. A real threat to European unity is posed by populist parties which pursue a policy of creating a party state allegedly in the interests of endangered national interests,” concluded Professor Tadeusz Czekalski.
