Personnel Decisions in Poland and Civilian Control

Over the course of the semester, we've discussed a number of ways that the state can control the military.  One nexus of control that fits under the two main types of control described by Huntington (1957) is the use of personnel policies to control the composition of the officer corps.  While at first blush, the use of promotion and retention policies might seem to be subjective control, having clear standards in place which emphasize loyalty to the state and civilian-led institutions can lead to greater professionalization and the ideal of objective control.

In February, Poland's government got rid of 90 percent of the top officers (Link).  One issue that was raised was that many of the top brass were recruited and trained before the collapse of the communist system and that many of them received their training in the Soviet Union. This could raise some question about the loyalty of the top officers and their institutional ties to the state (Russia) that Poland views as its biggest threat.

From the article:

Last month, General Mieczyslaw Gocul, chief of staff of the Polish armed forces, resigned and was replaced by Lieutenant-General Leszek Surawski. 

Gocul's departure had followed that of General Miroslaw Rozanski, who had shifted chains of command in the army, air force, navy and special forces to improve the general staff's strategic planning. 

The move was said to have infuriated the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has vowed deep reforms of the judiciary, state media and other institutions.

A major shift of military resources and organization without the approval/consent of the civilian government is a major potential problem in terms of civil-military relations. Whether such a shift allows for better planning and execution by the military is a conversation that should be had, but if those decisions were made unilaterally by the military, the response by the government is appropriate.

Trump is against NATO

Zhanara Omarova

New US President Donald Trump expressed his opinion that NATO is becoming useless. He stated that NATO is old because it was created long years ago and the main problem is that it cannot protect the United States from terrorism. He explained it by low funding which other countries should fund in order to support NATO. He also criticizes EU and says that Britain had made a good choice when they decided to leave the EU.  Trump criticized Germany and its leader Angela Merkel for the allowance of free movement of refugees and states that Europe can no longer protect itself from terror. Prussia or modern Germany the first country where military forces appeared as an effective organized structure (Huntington 1957) and now according to  Trump cannot no longer defend itself from terrorism.

I think  Terrorism is  a modern type of war. Different countries handle this problem in different  ways. This type war as other types need troops, funding and structure. As Porter(1994) states war leads to development of logistics, improvement of universal education and healthcare but first of all in order to do that  things we need money and that is why Trump emphasizes that lack of funding in NATO leads to its inefficient  function. Report from defense expenditures of NATO   countries shows that only 5  NATO member states out of 28 states spend enough money and the leading role take up USA which is very unfair according to US president.

I would like to explain this issue by collective action and free riders problem. Huntington states that military is monopolized by the state and if certain state has army this state allocates enough money and this army is governed by certain state. Which makes this army structured. However, NATO does not belong to one special country and here arises the question of free-riding where one state rely on another in terms of funding but all states want to use security that offers NATO. Huntington states that modern military officer should be educated expert with responsibility but in order to train such officer military needs financing which is core problem of NATO today. Last year Obama sent 3500 troops and more than 100 vehicles to Poland as a response to Russian aggression but now  there is a question:  will the new president return these troops back to the US?

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Huntington, Samuel P. 1957. The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA.

Porter, Bruce D. 1994.War and the Rise of the State 1st ed. Free Press