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Taking into account the prepared 2011 Security Strategy and the White Paper on Defence in our country, due attention ought to be paid to political ambitions and economy influence of emerging actors, both world and regional. In ten or twenty years to come we shall face basic transformation of international system. Today, there are four main global power centres: North America (United States, Canada), the European Union, China and Japan. The author of this study concentrates predominantly on their economy strength that is also a base of all sources spent on armed forces. Among emerging powers belongs above all India, regional power in South Asia, Brazil in Latin America, followed by Indonesia, Turkey, and Mexico. They together cover 52 per cent of word's economy production. Different interests give rise to various disputes, but they are able to act cohesively against e.g. decisions by G-20. Among other's the article is accompanied by the table comparing military powers of the USA and Russia.

The White Paper on Defence was approved by the Government of the Czech Republic on 18 May 2011. The article describes a circumstances of the document development and its substance and role in the family of the defence strategic documents. In addition, the article highlights some important measures of the White Paper that has been implemented in practice. The author who was a member of the committee, responsible for development, and an editor of the White Paper, responds to some voices, claiming that the document has not come up to expectations and it is not usable for the future of the Czech Armed Forces. The author presents his lessons learned from the development and implementation of the document and describes some recommendations for the future.

Today, the word Concept is one of most used terms in the framework of long and medium term of defence management. Concept development as a process is mentioned in significant number of departmental regulations and descriptions of activities of organizational bodies of the Ministry of Defence and General Staff. Concept development and Experimentation is a kind of incantation used when we speak about the development of long and medium term strategic documents. This article comprises the analysis of the legal regulations concerning the development of strategic documents. It analyses the implications of the governmental Methodology of mid-term concepts and Methodology of preparation of public strategies for departmental strategic documents.

The main goal of the presented article is to evaluate the impact of Japanese missile defence development on the regional strategic stability in Northeast Asia. The goal is reached through an analysis of interaction between missile defence and roles of ballistic missiles in Chinese and North Korean strategies towards Japan, while also taking into account the alternative policies which Japan might have used in response to the ballistic missile threat. According to the analysis, the development of the Japanese missile defence does not degrade strategic stability in the discussed region.

Attributes and quality of the security system of the Czech Republic depend on the quality of human potential, which is part of institutions to guarantee security in the broadest sense of the word. The preparation of the staff of each part of the security system, as defined in the Security Strategy of the Czech Republic (2011), is performed in universities, colleges, and middle schools, training facilities, scientific research facilities and by employers. The capacity of educational institutions, in effect exceeds requirements of practice. The coordination of their activities and the content of education are managed by twelve-year-old conceptual document that has been in need of updating. This paper discusses those aspects and points out directions and ideas for addressing of some problems of current practice, and also some of the challenges of the future.

The paper deals with the ministerial officials of the Czech Republic. Using large-N survey on the Czech ministerial officials and in-depth interviews with them, we are exploring the role of social scientific knowledge, which use ministry officials. Based on results of the empirical research are drawn comparative conclusions concerning the ministry of defence and other ministries.

The article deals with the issue of methodological approach to scenario development. This paper describes the methods and techniques used in scenarios development both in civilian sphere and within NATO and the EU, with an emphasis on their role in the military capability development process of the armed forces. The article defines the usual scenario construction process and describes the location and differences of generic and specific planning situations. In addition, the principles necessary to create quality scenarios are described here. The conclusion of the article deals with proposals focused on the elaboration of a methodology for scenario building in the Czech Armed Forces as part of the project "Strategic Alternatives to the Construction and Development of the Czech Armed Forces", which is being elaborated at the Center for Security and Military and Strategic Studies of the University of Defense in Brno.

The article is based mostly upon an essay Composants et caractéristiques de la stratégie de désinformation by Gula Csurgai. published in Revue Militaire Suisse, March, April, 2007. Disinformation is the deliberate dissemination of false information. It may include the distribution of forged documents, manuscripts, and photographs, or propagation of malicious rumours and fabricated intelligence. In the context of espionage or military intelligence, it is the deliberate spreading of false information to mislead an enemy as to one's position or course of action. It also includes the distortion of true information in such a way as to render it useless. Disinformation is used for preparing public opinion before military operations are opened, the conflict must be "personalized" (the fight of Good against Evil), arousing emotions, sustaining ignorance and confusion, targeting information flows, omitting pieces of information and pushing redundant information. It is necessary to emphasize the role of used language. This phenomenon is described in the famous novel 1984 by George Orwell. The words are capable to arouse concrete images that consequently influence people's behaviour. Disinformation should not be confused with misinformation, which is not deliberate.

This article analyzes strategic engagement of the Russian Federation and the United States of America in the South Caucasus in four phases of development from the end of the Cold War until present day. The first phase covers early nineties, the second is from mid-nineties to 2003, the third from 2004 to 2008 and the fourth from 2009 to 2016/2017. There are three key trends during the examined period. First, Russia has permanent strategic interests in the South Caucasus due to maintaining its own state security and securing the position of the most prominent external actor in the region. Second, Russia's weakness and active engagement of the US/NATO are barriers to realizing Russia's state interests. Third, the South Caucasus is strategically more significant to Russia than the US/NATO.

Since the 1st release of an internal ministerial norm guiding planning processes of activities and development within the Czech Ministry of Defence (MOD) presuming existence of Capability Planning Methodology, this document has not been established. This article offers selected theoretical starting points and, on their basis, it outlines possible a ministerial process tree focused on the capability process as a ground for its definition within Czech MOD conditions. Further in a framework of an added value model proposes possible internal structure of above mentioned process down to sub-processes level with justification of their purpose and mutual links. Formulating mentioned attributes of the capability planning process this article makes a contribution to set up this process within the Czech MOD.

The aim of the article is to compare foreign policy of G. W. Bush jr. and Barack Obama in terms of use of military force. Transition from ground operations to targeted killings is demonstrated on three military operations - Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve. The shift from bombers to drones had several reasons, mainly changing features of the threat. Authors are asking questions why and how did change the US fight against global terrorism with respect to military technologies and how is this change reflected in US fight against the threat of Islamic state.

The paper deals with the process of radicalization in the armed forces in Central Europe, with specific focus on the Czech Armed Forces and the Bundeswehr. The author conceptualizes radicalization as a recent security threat and explains the specifics of the use of this concept in the armed forces. The most important historical legacies are identified and the current development cases and trends are analyzed and compared, including the specifics of various streams of extremism. Possible recommendations how to counter radicalization are included in the paper.

The paper deals with cyber security, cyber defence and operations in cyber space. It follows earlier performed analysis of cyber defence tasks and proposes distribution of competencies among key players. The required capabilities are derived from tasks determined by legislation, NATO and EU commitments and earlier developed strategic and operational scenarios. Comparing required capabilities and an actual state, a solution harmonizing defence in cyber space with defence of the Czech Republic and ensuring the cyber space defence and integration cyber capabilities into common operations conducting is proposed.

The paper deals with general aspects of problems of biological warfare agents and toxic industrial biologicals understanding from the point of view of protection against their effects and a possibility of specialists´ cooperation. The aim of the paper is to point to some problematic aspects of biological defense realization in connection to experiences from their historical usage. With the help of analysis of current strategical and operational documents and synthesis of available experiences from operational deployment of medical service and chemical corps units variants of optimization of current state have been proposed. These ones are main conclusion of the paper.

The aim of the paper is description and analysis of the transformation of the concept of hybrid war. The Russian intervention in Ukraine in 2014 meant principal re-definition of the concept which is reflected in the contemporary views on the hybrid wars and hybrid threats. The concept of hybrid war had been questioned in the past already as his validity and the efforts to be applied on the past conflicts deformed its innovative content. One could argue, that adding new dimensions and topic such as economic factors, ideological activity etc. brings risk of concept´s expansion which goes far behind of the framework of the phenomenon of the war and the use of armed forces in the armed conflicts. The author draws attention to the fact that the definition of hybrid war tends to be subordinate to the current needs, which in turn only hinders their explanation potential.

The article deals with the experimentation in the military domain. It is anchored by the experiment explanation in the NATO context paying special attention to the capability development. Basic principles and terminology of design, execution and analysis is discussed in the following part employing 5W approach. The main focus is aimed at the experiments' examples from the NATO and Nations environment. The article is closed by the explanation of the role of the experiment in the decision making process under the uncertainty in the complex environment.

Since the end of the Cold War, several military reforms have been carried out in Germany so far and a new military transformation is in the process of preparation. Over the years, the definition of the Bundeswehr's main missions has gradually shifted towards crisis management operations and the structure of the armed forces has accommodated to this shift. After the 2010-2011 reform, it was entirely evident that crisis management operations have become the main task of the armed forces. At present, German military policy places the main emphasis on "restoring the capacities" for collective defence. The strengthening of the expeditionary element in the German armed forces was made possible by the most efficient use of resources and investment inherited from the Cold War era and cutting capacities tailored to territorial defence. The author comes to the conclusion, that such policy is now evidently exhausted and is no longer sustainable - if German collective defence capacities are to be truly restored.

This article discusses the issues of the Czech military diplomacy carried out by military, air, naval or defence attachés accredited in foreign countries in order to uphold the national security and defence interests. The main emphasis of this article is put on the evaluation of current state and legal bases of military diplomacy of the Czech Republic. The article aims to identify and analyse the challenges (1) the Czech diplomacy is currently faced with and to propose viable solutions (2) which could possibly contribute to better coordination and effectiveness of the Czech military diplomacy.

Light Infantry units are primarily equipped with the Iveco light armored vehicles in the Army of the Czech Republic. Similar type of vehicles was acquired by the armies of some other NATO members. Armored LMVs represent a new category of equipment and no specific tactical procedures have yet been created. The aim of the text was to develop general tactical light infantry procedures for the current training needs of units with Iveco LMVs. In the text, combat battle drills on vehicles and tactical procedures for the use of light units equipped with the LMV Iveco have been created. Combat deployment experience and results of live simulation were main source of information for development of LMV tactics and procedures. Presented procedures can be used for training of units equipped with LMV Iveco. The use of light armored vehicles also showed the design limits of this technique. LMVs Iveco cannot fulfill the role of primary vehicle of light infantry units on a conventional battlefield mainly due to their low level of endurance.

The article explores the energy security relations between Russia and the EU. The aims of this article are two. The first is to analyze the content and basic themes of the Russian security discourse on energy relations with the EU in 2012-2017. The second is to interpret the influence of norms and values in the energy security discourse on identity and interests of Russia in the studied period. Security discourse of the Russian Federation focuses on defending Russian diversification projects to strengthen EU energy security. In the security discourse, Russia in relations with the EU de-securitizes the issue of energy when it presents itself as the main and reliable partner and supplier of oil and gas to the EU.

The paper deals with cyber security, cyber defence and operations in cyber space focusing on the department of defence. Tasks implied from the Czech Republic's, NATO's and European Union strategic documents and roles of participating subjects have been analysed. Four scenarios as another source of identified tasks were created and used to describe possible situations requiring cyber defence capabilities. The presented analysis is a prerequisite for specifying required capabilities, and a proposal how to assign roles, responsibilities and required capabilities.

The article focuses on the issue of foreign fighters from the Balkan peninsula, and examines the measures that have been taken by governments in the region to combat it. The author asserts that the first ISIS losses and the thinning of the first wave of enthusiastic recruits accompanied with the first disillusioned returnees and changes in public policies and in public discourse (political narrative and narrative of Islamic communities, mass media) caused the unprecedented decline in the number of new recruits.

The article deals with the evaluation of the state of oil security in the Czech Republic and measures, which should be taken to increase it. The attention is payed to the importance of the crude oil in the energy mix of the Czech Republic, its oil dependency and international cooperation in the area of oil security. Further, it focuses on the emergency stocks of the crude oil and petroleum products and to their use and to the oil demand restraint measures.

The issue of terrorism is becoming increasingly important on the level of social, economic, political and security. The threat of terrorism affects at the same time, societal and cultural events. Professional and academic discussion addresses the causes and possible consequences of this phenomenon. To understand the implications of terrorism, it is necessary to look at this issue from the perspective of terms of its financing. This review study aims to define the term financing of terrorism on the one hand, but also to identify possible sources of financing of terrorism, including the most used payment methods by terrorist organizations. This study also leads a discussion on the efforts and effectiveness of the various authorities in the fight for detecting terrorism, especially in relation to the detection of its financial flows. The study also defines the possible pitfalls in the fight against terrorism and detecting its sources of financing and attempts to outline possible alternatives while increasing success in this fight.

The article analyses activities of geographical support in missions abroad. The proposals for adjustment of processes and equipment during a preparation phase of perspective deployment of mobile geographic support unit were created on a basis of author's knowledge and experience, studies of documents and a discussion of participants in missions. The ISAF mission (currently Resolute Support mission) represents a model on which a future form of geographic support of national contingents in missions abroad is being developed. The brought up results represent a recommendation for further development of geospatial support of AČR in missions. The main conclusion is defining a need of position for a geographer within a mid-sized contingent and at a same time making use of a new mobile geographic set GeMoZ-C, which already complies with a majority of mentioned remarks.

This paper provides an introduction to the quantum radars that can cause a revolution in the modern warfare in the near future. The goal of the paper is to present basic principles of quantum radars without deep knowledge of quantum mechanics, where its properties and phenomena important for the quantum radar will be outlined. After the physics introduction, the three basic designs of how the quantum radar could work will be presented as well as their advantages. In more details, the main benefits of quantum radars including higher quantum radar cross section and more difficult jamming and localization will be discussed. Next, the state-of-the-art research, the important technologies for quantum radar and its other applications will be commented. Finally, the time scale of the first prototypes and the role of the quantum electronic warfare will be discussed.

In the light of neorealist theory, the Eastern enlargement of NATO satisfies basic feature of expansion: 9 former countries of the Warsaw Pact become members of NATO. USA as a Sea power reinforced its superiority at the detriment of the RF as a continental power. The annexation of Crimea, as a Russian answer, had intensified security fears of post - Soviet countries and of Poland and enlarged the space for external balancing of the USA. Author warns that a confrontational structure had become typical for the area or the Western part of the Post - Soviet space. It increases the number of military incidents, and, even, the threat of a direct military confrontation including a Russian use of tactical nuclear arms, being inspired by the Rogers plan from 1980´s.

The objective of this article is to analyse the security and foreign policy of the Russian Federation in 2008-2012, in terms of security culture. The article is based on the assumption that the Russian security and foreign policy during Medvedev's presidency was characterized by four features: promoting multilateralism, exaggeration Russian national security threats, emphasizing the possibility of the use of nuclear deterrence, and using energy as a political tool. The article is based on three Russian strategic documents, i.e. Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation to 2020 and the Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation. It also examines some events of Russian internal and external policy, especially Russian-Georgian conflict, Medvedev's proposal to create new security architecture in Europe, or the security relations between Russia and the EU, NATO and the U.S.

At first, we are familiarised with terms of extremism, Romanies (Gypsies), anarchists, neo-Nazis, then the author introduces possible picture of security situation at the turn of second and third decades of 21st century. He believes that in every country there is a limited ability to integrate ethnic groups by majority. As soon as the limits are exceeded, problems begin. His scenario ends with a pessimistic vision: increasing tensions will ask army deployment, but even local armed forces are not able to enforce law and order, therefore the government must ask for help neighbouring states.