Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), Switzerland's largest opinion-shaping daily, said Poland's rearmament drive extends far beyond weapons purchases into what it called a whole-of-society approach to security, citing a report from the Swiss Institute for Global Affairs.
Poland sits on NATO's exposed eastern flank, the paper noted, where the war in neighboring Ukraine is felt directly through Russian drone and aircraft incursions into its airspace, disinformation campaigns and sabotage of rail lines used to supply Ukraine.
By next year, Polish authorities plan to have trained 400,000 civilians to respond to security emergencies, according to NZZ. The training starts in schools, where military instructors teach students first aid and how to react to air raid alarms; older students have taken mandatory firearms training since last year. In summer, teenagers can also enroll in military preparation courses.
The effort reaches beyond the classroom. Nongovernmental groups are preparing senior citizens to recognize hybrid threats, while what NZZ described as the "influential Catholic Church" is working with Poland's interior and defense ministries on wartime contingency planning. The country's Territorial Defense Forces — described by the paper as "military auxiliary units made up of trained civilians familiar with the local terrain" — serve as "a link between the nation and the army".
NZZ contrasted that mobilization with Switzerland, where it said such measures are widely seen as excessive. "While there is consensus in Poland that Russia poses a threat, that awareness is lacking in Switzerland", the paper wrote, citing Marcel Hirsiger, an Eastern Europe expert at the Swiss Institute for Global Affairs, despite the country also having faced cyberattacks and disinformation.
Hirsiger argued Switzerland actually has "ideal conditions" for building a defense-ready society, pointing to its existing shelter network and civil defense tradition. But NZZ said most Swiss politicians, business leaders and members of the public now regard that system as outdated and keep their distance from it.
"Poland has shown that resilience can only be achieved through cooperation between the state, business, science and civil society", NZZ concluded, adding that Poland achieved this "despite political polarization".
(jh)
Source: PAP