|
Poland National Security Agencies
In January 1991, Walesa began forming a National
Security
Council (Rada Bezpieczenstwa Narodowego--RBN) that would
take the
place of the KOK as the chief security policy advisory
body to
the executive branch. The KOK had been established by
Gomulka for
administration of wartime efforts (it also implemented
communist
party decisions during the martial law period). The RBN
would
have the broader task of determining appropriate defense
measures
against military, economic, and ecological threats to
national
security. It would be directed by the Bureau of National
Security
(BBN) and headed by a representative of Walesa. It would
include
experts in military, legal, foreign affairs, and domestic
security matters. Because of this broad mission and RBN's
direct
subordination to the president, Walesa's plan immediately
ran
afoul of the Sejm, which refused to pass legislation
making the
RBN an official government body. The RBN then existed in
1991 and
1992 as an unofficial adjunct to the president's office,
but the
Sejm had no legal obligation to follow the RBN's policy
recommendations.
By mid-1992 the RBN was taking an active and
controversial
role in defense planning, largely because the
responsibility for
national security planning had not been firmly assigned to
any
agency. Walesa's enemies attacked the RBN because the
agency's
bimonthly meetings allowed interested parties to attend
unofficially and, under that stipulation, some of Walesa's
cronies seemed to have access to classified information.
Jan
Parys, an advocate of higher force strength as a
prerequisite for
national security, engaged in polemics with RBN officials
over
budget cuts and restructuring during 1992 when he was
minister of
national defense.
In the meantime, the KOK had continued to exist as the
official maker of national defense policy. Control of
national
security was a key issue of Olszewski's term as prime
minister;
after Olszewski's ouster, the atmosphere of defense policy
making
calmed, and the KOK recovered some of its stature.
However, it
was the BBN that issued a new defense doctrine, including
potential threats and recommended responses, in July 1992.
The
doctrine, produced by a task force representing the
General Staff
and the ministries of national defense, foreign affairs,
and
internal affairs, became official when ratified by the KOK
in the
fall of 1992. The Little Constitution, ratified in October
1992,
officially renamed the KOK as the RBN and prescribed
changes in
the structure and control of the existing agency.
Data as of October 1992
|
