Private capacities will close the security gap.

We live in a rapidly changing world. Contrary to the assumption that it is mainly challenges for politics, what is happening, it is primarily security institutions - from intelligence services to the executive to bodyguards - that are confronted with the effects of change. The fact that the workload is increasing is long since a truism. Dr. Gert R. Polli - the father of the Austrian domestic intelligence service and now head of the globally operating security company polli-IPS (Intelligence & Public Safety) - will appear in 2017 as the patron and speaker at the Personenschutzakademie PROTECT and PREVENT. Ulf Wanderer spoke with Polli about his career as an intelligence officer, the changing relationship between personal protection and services, and the future of intelligence services.

SPARTANAT: Before we begin, we would like to thank you for answering our questions. Dr. Gert R. Polli, this name should be familiar to many readers. For everyone else, would you please introduce yourself briefly?

Gert R. Polli: Born in 1960, I have spent most of my life working for intelligence services. My intelligence career began in the Austrian foreign intelligence service, the Army Intelligence Office (HNaA), in the 1980s. In 2001, I was entrusted with the management of the Austrian State Police in the Ministry of the Interior, which I eventually led as a project manager into a contemporary structure. The result was the current Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism. This is an authority that is essentially police but also works as an intelligence service. From 2002 until the beginning of 2008, I was entrusted with the management of this authority. After that, I was in the private sector, including as head of global security for Siemens AG, until I founded a very special company in 2012. The firm offers solutions for companies as well as individuals confronted with non-routine challenges. The clients include large corporations, governments, NGOs, and individuals. However, we are neither a detective agency nor a private intelligence service. We deal with other people's problems. It is the specific problems that we address that set us apart from others.

SPARTANAT: Which stage in your professional life has challenged you the most so far?

Gert R. Polli: Definitely my time as Director of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Austria. It was a special time. I moved to the Ministry of the Interior in September 2001, eleven days later we were confronted with the terrorist attacks of 09/11 in New York. From then on, the daily work of the authority changed fundamentally. In retrospect, that was the most difficult time of my work as an authority leader. The organization I headed was in the midst of a restructuring process. From this point on, counterterrorism became the absolute focus of the organization. The challenge in terms of international cooperation on this issue was enormous. Correspondence with partner organizations had multiplied, and internal expertise on the issue of Islamic terrorism was just beginning to emerge. Counterterrorism has since become the central issue for the organization and remains so today.

SPARTANAT: Was the transition from military service to service provider for the private sector seamless or a major adjustment for you?

Gert R. Polli: For me, as a trained career officer, working in a civilian authority like the BVT in the Ministry of the Interior was a major adjustment. There are significant differences between how the military approaches problems and how the Ministry of the Interior deals with the challenges at hand. One reason is that the Ministry of the Interior is a law enforcement agency and therefore cooperates closely with the public prosecutor's office. This is not the case in the military. But what also bothered me were the significant differences in mentality between soldiers and police officers, generally speaking.

"The professional profile for both groups has changed significantly in recent years. ... With the terrorist threat and the general increase in crime, the challenges to the quality of civilian bodyguards have increased."

SPARTANAT: Do you think that active bodyguards can learn from active military personnel and vice versa? Where do you see the intersections?

Gert R. Polli: The professional profile for both groups has changed significantly in recent years. Legally, the protection of military personnel domestically is on shaky ground, and this often leads to friction with civilian authorities. For military bodyguards, the deployments of the armed forces abroad are a constant challenge. The environment for civilian bodyguards on the domestic front has also changed steadily in recent years. With the terrorist threat and the general increase in crime, the challenges to the quality of civilian bodyguards have increased. I see a lot of intersections between civilian and military. It starts with the fact that the Austrian Armed Forces have taken over embassy guard duties for the past six months. This was unthinkable a few years ago. Of course, this is not classic personal protection, but the protection of critical infrastructure. However, this is a good example of how the two areas, civilian and military personnel and object protection, are moving closer together. Yes, I do believe that both sectors need to learn from each other. I am convinced that we will see a much stronger intertwining of civilian and military personal protection in the future. Security will remain a central issue. State security structures are increasingly challenged, and there is a risk of personnel shortages and other capacity problems. I expect that these security shortcomings will increasingly need to be addressed by private capacities.

"We are entering a very difficult time, which also affects the daily work of the bodyguard. ... All of these developments already have an impact on the tactical execution of personal protection."

SPARTANAT: Do you think that the current political situation in Europe has an impact on work in PS protection?

Gert R. Polli: Yes, of course. We are entering a very difficult time, which also affects the daily work of the bodyguard. The European Union is currently in a phase of weakness. Whether the Euro will actually survive, the coming years will show. The European population is unsettled. A new form of poverty is taking hold if you look closely. The likelihood of social unrest has increased. Europe is also politically very polarized. We are seeing an increase in right-wing and left-wing populist movements along a social and intellectual fault line. All of these developments already have an impact on the tactical execution of personal protection.

SPARTANAT: If yes, in your opinion, what measures and changes should be primarily implemented?

Gert R. Polli: I believe that the profession or task of personal protection will be more complex in the future than it is today. There will be closer cooperation between military and civilian personal protection, as well as an intensification of cooperation between civilian and privately organized personal protection. But the dynamic development of technology and electronics will also have a strong impact on personal protection. It is not uncommon today for the individuals to be protected to be increasingly confronted with threats from the internet. Developing and deriving practical personal protection concepts from these threat scenarios is a new challenge for the industry. Today, a bodyguard simply needs to know how to ward off eavesdropping and what dangers the internet poses for the principals. I am not saying that the bodyguard is the one who acts as a specialist in this area. But I argue that contemporary personal protection must professionally engage with this issue. This brings us back to the topic of training for personal protection. I would not be surprised if a basic course on internet and telephony and the associated sources of danger were on the agenda for one of the next seminars. I would like to see personal protection further developed in this direction.

SPARTANAT: Are there now new challenges facing active duty personnel in the police and military?

Gert R. Polli: Another definite yes. The challenges lie in new technology, adapted tactics, and a clear growth of personnel. We can already see this in Germany and in Austria. Both states are drawing the necessary consequences of a more tense security situation - both internally and in terms of the security environment. We are not yet at a point where we can see both areas working side by side without friction. Structural and mental differences between military and civilian service structures are still difficult to bridge. The recent example of the lack of coordination between HNaA and BVT in the investigation complex involving a Turkish hacker in the US speaks volumes. For a merging of related areas of the services, there is a lack of political will in Austria. However, it will be the threat and the limited financial resources that will lead to bringing these two areas closer together.

"For me, a privately organized counterterrorism or perhaps even private source management, selling insights to security authorities, is inconceivable."

SPARTANAT: Do you believe that a significantly large private market is emerging for intelligence activities as a service? If "yes," how could this materialize?

Gert R. Polli: I do not believe that private intelligence services in Europe, especially in Austria, can look forward to a successful economic future. While the trend towards outsourcing security services is evident everywhere, a privately organized counterterrorism or perhaps even private source management, selling insights to security authorities, is inconceivable to me. However, this is different for the areas of corporate security of larger companies. Here, the development is clearly moving towards business intelligence. Most large companies are establishing such services in-house. Small companies often cannot afford such specialists. I think that this area could become a growth sector in the future. It must also be mentioned that a large number of such private service providers simply lack the qualifications for it. This can often result in irreparable damage to the customer.

SPARTANAT: After the major migration of the last year, Islamist terrorism, and the crisis in Ukraine, it seems that the state wants to take on its tasks such as security more strongly itself. Is there a renaissance of the state or will the trend towards outsourcing security persist?

Gert R. Polli: The role of the state in conflicts such as those in Eastern Ukraine, Iraq, or Syria is and remains undisputed. However, the tendency towards outsourcing for very specific security services will continue. Intelligence services, in particular, tend to avoid parliamentary control over their actions through front companies or even just partner companies. The arming of so-called opposition forces in Syria by Western intelligence partner companies is a very typical example of these tendencies. What we will see is a greater specialization of outsourced security services. The typical mercenary we know from the past will be replaced by the jihadist who goes to war zones for religious and other reasons. In the future, it will be other services that will be at the center of security-related outsourcing. This is particularly true for the cyber domain, which is currently undergoing incredible dynamics.

SPARTANAT: Thank you for the conversation.

GERT R. POLLI online: http://www.gertpolli.com/de/

PROTECT AND PREVENT

organizes personal protection training and security-related seminars for employees of the private sector as well as for active military and police forces in the German-speaking area of Europe.

These seminars and conferences offer the opportunity to individually train and deepen professional skills. At the one- to three-day events, the participants evaluated by us meet international trainers and speakers.

The core of the events is the intelligent combination of practical, tactical, and theoretical units combined with firsthand knowledge transfer and professional level exchange of experiences.

PROTECT AND PREVENT online: www.protect-and-prevent.at/

ULF WANDERER online: www.ulf-wanderer.at