Cooperation of the Territorial Defense Forces with a non-military system during armed conflict

Abstract

The article presents the conditions for organizing the cooperation of the newest type of armed forces, the Territorial Defense Forces, with non-military institutions. When presenting individual issues, it was emphasized that the essence of cooperation between various entities is to coordinate their actions to achieve a common goal, while maintaining the autonomy of individual parties to this action. Concerning not only military threats, the coordination of the activities of various entities in the regional (voivodeship, poviat, commune) but also nationwide dimension has become particularly important due to the introduction of a new element to the national security system – the Territorial Defense Forces (WOT). The underlying assumption of activities in this area has been to increase the state’s defense capabilities and link the operation of Territorial Defense Forces units to a given area. The activities related to the establishment and development of the WOT are mostly the result of the strategic analysis carried out since 2016 at the Ministry of National Defense as part of the Strategic Defense Review (SPO 2016). Bearing in mind the regional nature of the activities (in permanent areas of responsibility) of the Territorial Defense Forces, the article presents what tasks this formation can perform in cooperation with public administration institutions and units of the Police, Border Guard, State Fire Service, health protection, and civil defense formations. The basic requirements for planning and organizing joint activities of such different entities are also indicated. The essential of them is the unity of action (planning, organizing, conducting activities), which primarily concerns acting in accordance with the same intention (concept), which in turn is a consequence of the proper definition of the chain of command (control), in which the relations between individual entities and decision-making powers have been precisely defined. This will make it possible to build an operational system in which the presented procedures of action planning are understandable to everyone and above all, allow for making rational decisions that enable achieving the synergy effect during the WOT’s operation with elements of the non-military system. It will be facilitated by getting to know each other’s procedures, potential, and specifics of action, and mainly being aware of the possibilities and scope of joint action.