Ours recent entry on the book “In the Shadow”, the recording of the conversation L. Maziewski with the erstwhile Head of AW – G. Small, met with a very affirmative reception from your side. You asked for more, so we got this! We're going in with 3 more thoughts.
We've written about the gap between the declarations of the erstwhile Head of AW and the actual functioning of the service erstwhile he held his position. We besides devoted quite a few space to discussing differences in approach to officers working under diplomatic cover, which occurred between G. Małecki and erstwhile management.
Today, we will address 3 more topics that we have “fished” from reading the book. First fire will be alcohol in the service. We will then effort to convince you that the organization improvement of the services cannot be based solely on legislative changes. We will besides effort to show why social force plays a very crucial function in this process.
Services alcohol
Somehow, “in the ministry you drink.” A circulation story that besides repents in any passages of the book “In the Shadow” is that an officer “must bite” due to the fact that he supposedly has specified a stressful job. The heads of service are divided into those who tolerate drinking in the “company” and those who say, “Zero alco. Zero!” This last approach seems to be shared by G. Littlecki.
However, this is besides simplistic. In our opinion, the approach to alcohol in the ministry is simply a reflection of its professionalism. And that we are discussing this is simply a relic of “the times rightly past.” Answer this question: will individual seriously discuss whether there should be alcohol in the Polish Microsoft branch or not?
Oh, no. And we presume that there, from time to time, individual workers may besides face stress situations. Serious companies simply have certain standards. And the worker knows that erstwhile an integration event is organized, it's okay to have alcohol.
In an efficient company, no 1 will make a problem with the fact that on an appropriate occasion (e.g. signing a lucrative “deal”) co-authors of success will drink a glass of good “whisk”. On a regular basis, the employees of the company will not be doing “manjana” in the kind of drinking vodka during the day alternatively of doing their duties.
And if they do... they will endure the consequences of specified behavior. Unless, like “brills”, they can go out to lunch, drink fries with a beer and then function usually at work. Well, then no 1 is going to pursuit them with a breathalyzer in the office. It's about the effect, the moderation, and the sense that this comes from 1 or another sense of professionalism.
A marazma formation, devoid of leadership and evaluation mechanisms for its work, whose officers are trained in addition, and then managed in a spirit of life transferred from the Polish People's Republic, can so have not so much "alcohol problems" as with a broader professional approach to the duties carried out.
In the past, there have been periods in the service, for example, where there were no “robots” and any people were able to sit in the rooms and even during the day drink “stronger drinks”. Only that the real problem in specified situations is not whether alcohol was consumed at the time, but how it was allowed to do so.
That is why we will “solve” this problem on the principle: “and now we will ban drinking in the building, destruct the anticipation of buying it in the canteen and everything will be git” resembles the medicine of the battlefield in the russian release. It involves ‘prepare’ limb wounds by amputation. Was there a problem? No problem.
At the same time, we believe that there is nothing inappropriate about it, that upon returning from a successful meeting, the warden will invitation the officer for a glass of whiskey to appreciate his success. There is besides nothing incorrect with organizing integration/circular events. However, they should not take place e.g. when processes that are crucial for the safety of the Polish Republic are taking place beyond the east border.
A akin approach besides translates into another aspects of the functioning of the company. Alcohol can, for example, be a useful component in the training process. In average quantities, it is possible to cope partially with fatigue caused by deficiency of sleep. Officers must besides be able to conduct operational meetings during which various "trunks" are consumed.
They must besides be aware of where their limit lies, after which they will not be able to carry out the task or are exposed to another threats. The conversation should so be conducted in specified a way as to keep a relation with the figurehead at the same time, but to keep moderation in alcohol consumption.
However, this does not mean that the operation involves inextricably drinking vodka. Nope. It depends on the circumstances, the kind of case, the figures appearing in it, and the approach and character characteristics of the officer. You can be very good to “operators” and barely consume alcohol at all. But you can besides do the opposite. There are no “golden” resources.
However, situations where "training" trips are an excuse for a "acute event" not only for participants but besides for instructors are unacceptable. In addition, the utmost manifestation of the "good quality" of the formation is the filling of the training functions of persons incapable to control their "alcohol drive".
So you see that the question of ‘drinking’ in the services is not just a question of tolerance or not tolerance? This isn't kindergarten. A professional formation and its officers should be perfectly aware of erstwhile and where there is area for alcohol. And if that is not the case, much deeper changes are required to change the full organizational culture.
And 1 last thing. All these books and films produced a small "hollywodzki" image of a Polish service officer. Meanwhile, the average typical of this profession is more like an authoritative who sees from within various pathologies operating in the native administration. And he does it for 10, 15, or 20 years in a row (!). And frequently within the same institution.
So this is the situation that many people, erstwhile they enter the service, think that their lives will shortly almost match the destiny of James Bond, while after a while they realize that they are closer to the characters of the book "Paragraph 22". So will the stress of risky work be their main problem?
What if alcohol abuse is alternatively a manifestation of professional burnout and akin problems faced by officers? In events involving services, we frequently effort to find sensations. meantime causes parts of them may sometimes be far more "prosaic" than it might seem. Although that doesn't mean they're little depressing.
Institutional improvement is not just about statutory changes
A large part of the Polish debate on the improvement of peculiar services focuses mainly on legislative changes. This connects, that eliminates, here change submission, and there form a committee. It's gonna be okay. No, it won't be good, due to the fact that it's like pouring water from 1 glass to another. She'll inactive be the same.
In our opinion, the way in which individual institutions operate needs to be rebuilt. To do that, you gotta start by selecting a group of people who will be responsible. Politicians must halt casting heads of service on a principle: individual there knows this guy from somewhere, and if he has adequate force to beat, he pushes his candidacy.
Nope. This choice should be preceded by a average recruitment process. So a man comes in, presents a diagnosis, as well as concrete proposals to solve problems. However, uncovering suitable candidates will not be easy. In the present "mundour" there is simply a deficiency of leaders who have the skills and experience to manage people efficiently.
What is more, those who would be able to improvement the service will not meet (we let exceptions) among high-ranking officers, who already have managerial functions in the past. specified people have been more or little "matched" in the system. So it's hard to anticipate them to turn him upside down.
Perhaps a group of people to be entrusted with the task of implementing the improvement should besides be partially supplemented by people outside the service – good managers with experience gained, for example, from business. In addition, the reformers' squad thus formed should have a warrant of their "inadequacy" for a period of time, e.g. 4 years.
They should then be carefully accounted for in their assignments. deficiency of crucial advancement in improvement should mean automatic dismissal. advancement monitoring should not be a problem, as a major improvement is required, not a "popping" of reality.
This process should begin by defining the precise tasks of the formation. The next step would be to rebuild the recruitment process, the training process, the working methods, the organisational structure, the ways in which the service was carried out, and so on... In a word you gotta build everything from scratch, due to the fact that the current format is simply anachronistic and ineffective.
If you talk to a younger generation of officers, that's what many of them think: "Split... and make from scratch." However, specified proposals are frequently ridiculed by any commentators, expressing natural concerns about whether or not we will "arm" for several/a fewer years.
In our opinion, however, this approach is wrong. Firstly, it assumes that we are now "armed". However, let us see the situation beyond our east border. Polish services were incapable to foretell and possibly counter Russian aggression themselves, and to prepare Ukraine to defy it.
So we were forced to trust on information coming from the US, and on what Washington would do to prevent Moscow from taking Kiev. The same objectives could so be achieved by much less. But if the American consequence to the Russian invasion were akin to the 2014 one, we'd be... ass...
Second, the construction of services from scratch does not mean that abruptly there will be a vacuum. fresh formations will be created in place of the old ones. 1 can even adopt a model in which this fresh service (e.g. intelligence) is created, which operates for respective years in parallel with the AW and SWW, whose activity is gradually "sucked out".
It is only at the minute erstwhile the model of organization renewal of services is adopted that changes in the scope of statutory arrangements can be considered. They are a secondary issue. Consider examples of abroad service. The Ukrainian SBU is simply a corrupt, inefficient pier and so attempts to improvement it aim to reduce its powers and tasks to become a counterintelligence service only.
But already in the case of the FBI, which brings together competence in the fight against terrorism, counterintelligence and the fight against organised crime. And no 1 is suggesting that any of these areas be excluded from the structure of the American service.
The creation of an American committee, proposed by G. Małecki, which would be liable for the flow of information between the various formations, and for preventing the overlapping of different services, is so a sensible solution. In our opinion, however, there is small in itself that will help.
This society must force the improvement of peculiar services
For many years in Poland, it has been said that services are "politicised". But then organization X wins the election and nothing changes. Why? due to the fact that the position depends on the seat As shortly as power is in place, the following temptation arises: “Early undercovers acted in their interests, why not do so in ours? It will be easier for us to keep power.”
However, it is much more hard to take action to “depoliticise” the services, due to the fact that it is not possible for the ruling organization to deprive itself of the tools that they think are useful, but they can be utilized against it in the event of abuse.
Similarly, in the service, for example, over the years, officers have been muttering to each other, “What is it that we have only 1 coffee maker in the corridor that is adequate people due to the fact that the another took the warden to his room?” And then 1 of these officers gets promoted, but the express inactive doesn't say, "What the hell? Now fuck... me!”
Both the ruling organization and the recently baked warden, the “depoliticisation” of the services and the surrender of the express simply do not pay off from the position of their own interests. Unless they can emergence to a supraparty level and start reasoning in terms of long-term benefits for the state.
But there's nothing to number on. We see akin processes everywhere. And the vast majority of countries are incapable to escape this trap. It is not that only the Americans, the Irish, or Swiss have, for example, the best cognition of the economics, the possession of which causes these countries to implement actions that lead to accumulation of wealth and well-being of society.
Nope. The elites in Mexico or Ukraine are besides aware of these "magic" recipes. However, they do not want to implement them. How can the authorities in Kiev be persuaded to improvement the judiciary in specified a way that it is not politicians who control economical sentences that are able to get rich and decide who else will get rich?
Implementation of organization reforms is so a very hard process. However, only the creation of certain incentives and restrictions will make politicians, as well as representatives of the administration, become much more active in the interests of the general public and not just their own. past has shown that man tends to be selfish.
Miners request exceptional pension privileges. The "mundour" may argue this, but how many support the resignation of the "we" after 15 years, due to the fact that it is "better for the budget and the pension strategy will be fairer"? And do you know of many lawyers who advocate the "opening" of this profession as a consequence of which prices of legal services will fall? Ask taxi drivers how they feel about "Uber" And so on.
Some nations, however, manage to break this tendency to pull each 1 on its own. In the long term, the reward for this effort is, among others, general prosperity, advanced quality of life, or a much higher sense of justice in society.
It is not a coincidence, therefore, that the comparatively narrow group of the richest countries of the planet is at the same time 1 of the countries with the most efficient institutions (not counting the "happy" ones whose prosperity is due to immense oil stocks). In order to do this, they all had to break the opposition associated with the peculiar interests of groups and individuals at any phase of development.
The general public so had a triumph over the elite, which controlled power and resources. In addition, society has led to the creation of institutions that warrant it as widely as possible to distribute political rights, as well as equal opportunities for economical success. This happened, among others, in the United States.
Since then, the authorities in Ukraine may have had akin incentives to their colleagues in Ukraine to prosecute their peculiar interests. However, appropriate “checks & balances” prevented them from doing so. In Egypt, the alleged "Arab Spring" led to the overthrow of power, but on this basis it was not possible to construct a fresh set of institutions that would preserve the fresh order.
Consequently, the erstwhile "system" was revived. This is what we must remember besides in Poland. We've done a lot. After all, we are at a much different phase of improvement than for example Ukraine. However, we are slow beginning to "go away" Czechs, and between us and the United States, Ireland, or Denmark, there is inactive a immense gap.
So if we want to yet make real - life services, it will require social pressure, which can only consequence in the emergence of political will to carry out reforms for those in power. Only they have prerogatives to implement changes.
Therefore, among another things, we decided to set up a blog. We want a increasing number of people to be aware of the problems that be in the safety sector. It is essential to break the “mur” of secrecy, for which this “mundour” is able to conceal its “low quality”. The public has to answer questions like:
"Do I want the army, on which we spend 2% of GDP in PRL helmets, and the training of the basic soldier to foretell specified anachronism as the simulated firing from the kale on incoming fighters?"
"And do we truly request 100,000 officials in uniform in the police force, but is it better to have 50,000 well-trained officers, alongside them a crowd of civilians doing office duties?"
“What does counterintelligence do to prepare Poland for asymmetric threats?”
“Did the intelligence foretell aggression on Ukraine?”
“How many cases brought by CBA ended with convictions?”
We hope that sooner or later the “critical mass” will gather, which will think: “Aha, here, weakly... what do we spend these millions on? Hello, Service Chief X, we invitation you to tv to explain to the public why this is the case and what the service was doing in the past year.”
At least let them sweat. These are our institutions and yours. How about then, slowly, open a window, an chance to bring about appropriate reforms...?
In this regard, the book “In Shadow” is simply a novelty in the Polish publishing market. It includes a diagnosis of the current state of the AW, proposals for changes, and evaluation of any of the decisions taken in the area of peculiar services in the past. This item is so part of the discussion on the effectiveness of the interview and possible needs for change.
This kind of discussion cannot be conducted on the basis of books about military or peculiar services, but either biographical novels or literary fiction designed to entertain the reader. In fresh years, we have seen a abrupt surge of this kind of position on the market.
Their popularity shows that there was a request for specified literature. So it is hard to be amazed that fresh authors decide to print akin books Very good. The only problem that can arise from this is that the reader will feel that the image of AW officers presented in V. Severski's books is real.
No, it's not. V. Severski's positions are literary fiction. Entertainment. Let us enjoy it, but let us not formulate a image of the service on this basis. Just as we will not discuss the CIA based on the saga involving Jason Bourne, but alternatively the past of this service by T. Weiner’s pen (“The Legacy of Drugs”).
This article was created thanks to the support of our subscribers. If you believe in what we do, you can aid our work by gaining access to weekly columnaries where we comment on current events. Just click here.
Also sign up for our weekly message newsletterin which you will find an overview of events from last week, comment on current events and exclusive and actual anecdotes from the planet of military and uniformed services.
