Fulltext search in archive

Recently, on pages of this Military Review, several authors wrote about new scholarly discipline, the securitology (Josef Janošec, MR 3/2007). The author would like to add several ideas to this new discipline, inspired among others, D. Meadows, Limits to Growth, P. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, R. Robertson, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture, Albrow, M. The Global Age, and many others. Today's world actors, the U.S., People's China, Russia, India, Iran, are in their roles accompanied by institutions, such as the Unites Nations, European Union, NATO, International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, multinational monopolies, etc. Among key actors also belong established international terrorism, international crime. The common outlet of those megatrends is emerging New Multipolarity, new picture of world's configuration. Among others, at the end, the author calls for good relations with Russia, otherwise we might face energetic crisis (energy aspect of security).

Nowadays we use the term security in a broader sense, covering ecology environment, economic discrepancies between the North and the South, raw material sources, demography, energy. The transfer of economic power from West to East is gathering pace and soon will dramatically change the context for dealing with international challenges - as well as the challenges themselves. Many in the West are already aware of Asia?s growing strength. The author uses data e.g. from The Pentagon?s New Map to demonstrate a cutting-edge approach to globalization that combines security, economic, political, and cultural factors. He predicts and explains the nature of war and peace in the twenty-first century and outlines the role that Western world can and will play in establishing international stability. European governments need to improve their military capabilities and develop their own distinctive approach to warfare. That approach should build on core European military strengths related to post-war stabilization after a military conflict. These approaches include nation-building, peacekeeping and counter-insurgency warfare.

The authoress deals with the question of financial resources the AČR will be able to spend on issues tied with state defence, i. e. for the needs and demands of defence department. In fact, its sources represent the main base for the support of the Czech armed forces. To predict the volume of financial means allocated for the forces is problematical, questionable. We must be prepared for further budget cuts, we must prepare B-scenario for the worst situation.

This article presents the findings of the survey being done during the evaluation and assessment of EU Battle Groups, their missions, roles, tasks, stemming from the requirements set by the EU Crisis Management Concept. The paper does not discuss in detail variants EU Battle Groups, but concentrates on their historical background, basic characteristics, structure, EU political-military ambitions, scenarios, reaction time, tasks, standards, training and certification, Battle Groups commitments, concept and implementation, achievements. The article also includes recommendations for the Czech Armed Forces that are currently involved in the formation of the EU Battle Group CZE/SVK. This article aims to record progress to date and to indicate challenges ahead. All information and data for this paper were drawn from unclassified sources.

The magazine Europäische Sicherheit No. 5/2007 published the article "1st die NATO fur die Zukunft gerustet?" by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. This article summarizes his main ideas. The logic of cooperation in security is timeless. That is why NATO did not end when the Cold War ended. The security environment has changed. The Alliance's missions have little in common with the territorial defence and deterrence functions that characterized the Cold War, namely the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The need to cooperate in meeting common security challenges has not changed. The new NATO programme is very ambitious: the Alliance must broaden the forum for political consultations; military transformation must continue, we have to develop modern military capabilities, among the most important developments in this respect is the NATO Response Force, which gives NATO an entirely new rapid reaction capability. We cannot afford a two-tier Alliance with some countries doing only the peacekeeping and reconstruction and others doing the high intensity and occasionally combat operations. Solidarity and equitable burden sharing means that Allies must be willing and able to do both-and have the military forces to back up their political commitments. NATO must both cooperate with Russia and at the same time be opened to new members.

The author summarizes and consequently generalizes security histories of war, peace, military, based upon the events of the last century. Recent moves towards a common European defence and security policy and European defence capabilities have sparked off considerable debate. Concerns have been voiced that this could lead to a decoupling of Europe's security from that of its other NATO allies, or a duplication of effort or capabilities. Above all, there is an urgent need for Europe to boost its capabilities, if it is not to be confined in future to a useful, but limited, reactive defence and security role. It is expected that the US, in a medium-term outlook, to say in the 2020 horizont, will be in a position of the only world's superpower; the People's China will remain only a regional power. All prognostic considerations must be therefore deduced from the position of the United States in the world. The American policy of multilateralism has proved to be most successful in history. As far as the position of our republic is concerned, to improve our defence capabilities we must use the EU as a framework ...242

This article presents a letter of introduction for the book by the recent director of Brno Institute for Strategic Studies, Josef Janošec, "Security and Defence of the Czech Republic 2015-2025", composed together with other authors from this institute. This deed is even more rewarding owning to the fact that in our country we lack an advanced cultivation of military sciences. Since the beginning of our pre-war Republic, we've only taken over ready-made military doctrines: at first it was the French doctrine of defensive lines of fortresses and forts, after WWII it used to be the Soviet Offensive Doctrine. Only in 1968 there was an attempt to draw up Czech national military doctrine in the so-called Memorandum of Military Political Academy (a military school of university type), but after the invasion of Soviet Army in the same year all such efforts faded in vain. The book by Ing. Janošec and his team is a brave attempt to establish the starting point for our own genuine Czech security policy, based upon broadly conceived security analyses ...190

ACR Logistics: the 2nd Phase of Reform by Prof. Ing. Petr Hajna, CSc. In its opening part, the article enumerates a short summary of tasks that were met in 2007, in the period of the first phase of ACR reform. At the same time the author marks out the tasks for its second phase in 2008. Logistics involves obtaining, maintaining, and transporting military personnel, supplies, and equipment. Now, we lay emphasis on the preparation of a new logistics concept in frame of outsourcing system (concentrated on optimalization of the employment of civilian companies for appointed goods and services); development and reconstruction of Maintaining Material Base Štěpánov (depends on allocated financial sources); purchases of T-810 vehicles; unifying control activities in the field of material economy and the founding of Office for Economy Management, subordinated to Logistics Department of Defence Ministry.

This article presents main ideas of the document, released by the Allied Command Transformation in March 2007. Terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction will be the principal threats for NATO. Further threats will come from unstable or failed states, regional crises and conflicts, growing availability of advanced conventional weapons, misuse of emerging technologies and disruption of flow of vital resources. India, China and Russia will be key players in future security environment. North Korea, Iran and Syria will present biggest threat to NATO. Following the release of the FSE Study, International Military Staff and defence planners will assess the implications for NATO forces. The purpose of this study is to offer professional views as starting point for solving prospective problems and threats.

Economy Management by Ing. Svatopluk Kunc. The purpose of this article is to explain the essence of above mentioned economic categories, their linkage to cost accounts, accountancy, to characterize accounting items as an important signpost, to clear mutual ties between the so-called economic rationality and the position of a manager in armed forces. It is not easy task to find unifying point of view. For that purpose the author explains methods of controlling, outsourcing, process management, total quality management, balanced scorecard, value management, etc.

The fundamental purpose of the nuclear forces that remain is political: to preserve peace and prevent coercion. The Alliance has taken far-reaching steps to adapt its overall policy and defence posture to the new security environment. NATO?s nuclear strategy and force posture were among the first areas to be reviewed. The Alliance?s 1999 Strategic Concept set forth the essential principles for the role and characteristics of NATO?s Nuclear Forces. This article provides an account of the most significant changes to NATO?s nuclear policy. As a first major step of relaxation, the readiness posture of dual-capable aircraft was greatly reduced, in 2002, the readiness requirements for these aircraft were further reduced and are now being measured in months. The author also writes about problems discussed at informal meeting of NATO defence ministers at Taormina, Italy, 2006.

What is Necessary to Consider in the Process of Organization Structures Construction, Military Forces Equipment and Training in ACR, after the Ending of "Conception" by Ing. Antonín Krásný, CSc. The very welcomed "Concept of Development of the Professional Army of the Czech Republic and the Mobilization of Armed Forces of the Czech Republic" had to be revised because of the lack financial means. This fact influenced a lot of live of our army. Additional career officers were to leave his services; military material, vehicles were further reduced. At present, we have to balance our military strength with security demands reflecting running changes in world's security surrounding. The main aim of the article is to describe development of security environment in the Central Europe. It considers decision mechanisms reform in NATO and transformations of its military forces structures. It highlights an impact of demographic, technological, institutional changes and changes in value system of defence assurance of the CR. We must still bear in mind that for us, NATO alliance, supplemented by the EU structures, is the main tool of our security.

The basic pillar of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction is the obligation of the States Parties of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to eliminate chemical weapons and facilities for their production within the year of 2007. The 11th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons took place in the Hague (5-8 December 2006). The Conference evaluated the present course of the destruction of chemical weapons and approved requests for extensions of the final date for the destruction of the declared chemical weapons stockpiles for all State Parties-owners of chemical weapons. It remains questionable whether such extension accomplishes the original goal of the Convention - to eliminate the chemical weapons around the globe.

The necessary predisposition of successful meeting assigned tasks of every military contingent sent abroad lies in a high cooperation of its elements, hidden performance of all mission members. The purpose of this article is to introduce nearly invisible activities of geographic and hydro meteorological specialists of the ACR, who prepared and printed geographical maps of Logar province. It is the very first set of maps created by the method of rapid symbolization of GIS data (Geographic Information System), based upon standard Topographic Map TLM50. Vocational preparedness of military geographers is high. Technological means, advanced technology they use in Logar, are an indispensable prerequisite for successful fulfilment of their mission with honours. In fact, the Czech contingent consists of nearly 200 members, formed by soldiers of 102nd reconnaissance battalion Prostějov, 7th mech brigade Hranice, 13th arty brigade Jince, 15th rescue engineers brigade Bechyně, 103rd Centre CIMIC/PSYOPS Lipník, 22nd Air Base Náměšť and other members of Czech armed forces.

The term "securitology" seems to be appropriate for nomenclative scientific discipline dealing with a research subject, security reality. This article proposes to use Yin- Yang principle and its applications to a philosophy of approach, holistic understanding contrapositive security forces. The classification of selected philosophical and methodological approaches to theme of securitology, the formalization of wide problems of securitology research, are the main items to be done first. The author presents his own approach to measurement in securitology, proposes theoretical models for description of problems connected with security questions, applications of various scenarios. He recapitulates traditional theories and practices of securitology and offers some new information on imaginable problems connected with multiparadigmatic sciences. Finally, he summarises contemporary state of research, including original draft of mathematical formulas to localize security threats. There are also some recommendations for future research in the field of securitology.

The end of the Cold War was the most important factor determinating political and security realities in the world. Consequent development has gradually led to the significant reengagement of the former Warsaw Pact member states and other military alliances, especially into all form of peace operations. The Czech Republic is following the path common for the other countries in Euroatlantic region, being motivated by common struggle for enlargement this area of stability, security, democracy and peaceful resolution of crises. Hand in hand, with growing experiences from peace operations, the Czech Republic reflects specificities of national security and military strategies, as well as the level of declared military ambitions. Principal changes the Czech forces undergoing now are aiming at fulfilment basic principles of the Security Strategy of the Czech Republic. Participation of the Czech Republic in peace operations and operations outside the republic is becoming the most predominant form of deployment of our armed forces. Therefore, peace operations studies are more pressing today than ever before in the past.

The purpose of this article is to point out the problems of long long-lasting stay in different culture surroundings, countries being at war or undergoing post-war reconstruction. It is the question of the so-called multiculturalism, in which an observer must adapt himself to quite a different culture, or to say it better, to affiliate his life with the knowledge and values shared by another society. This empirical survey, together with collected data, is the first of its kind that was carried out in the Czech Republic. The research was done with the use of questionnaires. Even though the poll was taken among the patch of 95 respondents, its results may be extrapolated over other persons, war correspondents, humanitarian workers, diplomats, or members of church missions.

The shift from vocational military service to all-volunteer force (AVF) could be regarded and treated as any other scholarly assignment of project management, so we can get a better look at its bugs and risks. The author applied the Valentas classification of innovation upon this AVF project in the Czech Republic and demonstrates what are main risks for its sustainability. He sees the first cause and effect in the reality that this shift lacks sufficient support by social sciences and humanities. Since 2003, only six per cent of scientists/scholars employed by the Czech Ministry of Defence have been supporting this great change. It is not enough and it makes certain incompetence within defence ministry to reach the factual aim of this move and AVF produces more and more difficulties. According to the author, the professionalization of forces in our country has not meet its main purpose--to raise professional qualities of military personnel, in spite of the fact it originally used to be the prime objective of this process.

This article aims at building a bridge upon a gap, which separates academic sphere and intelligence community in the issue of predictive methodology. The author tries to accomplish this objective by presenting intelligence predictive methods based on open-source literature research. First, the question of uncertainty and probability in prediction is introduced (Cynefin template). Then follows basic introduction to predictive methods in civil and military intelligences, so that the reader might grasp the fundamentals of early warning systems. The academics and above all journalists should know the risks and perils in forming intelligence forecasts, estimates, foresight and warning scenarios, e.g. the so-called Black Swan scenario, the author explains potentials failures of the Delphi method. This study ought to be regarded as an introductory to predictive intelligence concurrently done by governmental agencies for purposes of national security and defence.

The definitions of the geospatial support used in different NATO missions and at command levels are very similar. However, the real content varies and it is affected by particular command level and the territory supported. The article describes the structure and manning of the Geographic Section at the HQ KFOR Pristina, Kosovo, and the Geographic Cells of all KFOR Multinational Task Forces. The author discusses the changes on both the customer and request sides and their changes caused by a recent transition of KFOR to the "Deterrent Presence" operations. Our soldiers work in leading positions and specialist occupations. Since 2003 the Geographical Service (GeoSl) has been regularly occupying geographical posts at KFOR Command Pristina. Those positions are prestigious, recognized by all NATO geographical community.

The article summarizes the results of sociological research into organizational culture in the ACR. It should create the picture of military organization, perhaps point at potential dysfunctions and thus to help to their correction. Respondents's opinions on remunerations were detected, in respondents places of work, in combination with their expectancy, anticipations what military service might bring to them. Two thirds professional soldiers have positive attitudes towards interpersonal relations at their working places. The worst position on the scale had the chance to work with the latest technologies and to start a professional career, i.e. to reach important positions. The culture of sustenance, sports facilities were evaluated positively. The lowest rating was allocated to arms equipment, furnishing and quality of garrison quarters. Respondents were also unsatisfied with high level of bureaucratic procedures and formalization.

Risk management covers the identification, assessment, and prioritisation of risks, which is followed by coordinated preventive operations to minimize negative impacts on society. The most demanding is the so-called risk assessment (risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation). The Risk Catalogue consists of introductory page, and twenty cards for risks register. With the assistance of this catalogue, defence analysts acquire general knowledge about number of risks and their frequency. The level of risk is calculated by summation according to its probability, gravity, and unwanted effects. In case of defence department, actual tasks are assigned to manage to Defence Ministry, Division, Branch, and Section accordingly. Possible risks are represented at a chart accompanying the article. The purpose of Risk Catalogue, its principles, guidelines for implementation, is to make the work of analysts easier.

The basic task of the post-1989 period was to formulate a security policy and a strategy ensuing from it. The strategy had to be based on a synthesis of the international policy concept, defence concept and internal security concept to ensure that defence would not be seen solely as the task of the army and the Ministry of Defence, but of the whole state and society-of every citizen. In this article his author evaluates some aspects of the armed forces transformation in process of adaptation. He assesses these changes with regard to approved strategic and conceptual documents that significantly determined this gradual transformation process. He identifies both same of its successes as well as failures. The study does not have a clearly analytical and evaluative character; rather it is a combination of factual information drawn from official sources, country's practical security policy as they appeared in contemporary Czech press, and opinions of the author.

Since 2008 national security institutions such as police, fi re brigades or armed forces have been confronted with the lack of manpower. There is impending risk of decreasing in population between 15-24 years, and as those key executive institutions are based upon employees' principle, this fact might disenable each national security institution, supposing this risk would be underestimated. Recruiting campaigns are not sufficient enough. In the near future, this is probably going to infl uence so far strict criteria for recruiting military personnel. According to the author, demographic ageing thus represents one of risks, but up to now the offi cial documents by Czech MoD have not reflected this situation.

Bread has constituted a staple of man's diet for centuries. Modern armies have made bread a major part of their sustenance, portable ovens are carried on campaign to facilitate its ample provision. The provisional support of Czech missions abroad is our first priority, baked products belong among those most important. The article deals with results of specific research done within Defence University in this field. The research covered analysis of modern technologies used for baking, devices and appliances. It dealt with traditional materials (e.g. flour) and verified them from a point of chemical, microbiological and sensorial parameters. Actual costs were compared with prices of other methods of production. The research proved that container bakeries are effective device for bread production.

This article presents trends in actual physical status of Czech population with emphasis to the military population. The battery of standard tests was used to monitor the basic health related parameters. This test battery was applied to large sample demographic groups. The results verify expected trends. Anthropometrical data show that the population reaches critical level of overweight at age of 40. Blood pressure tends to increase more rapidly after age of 45. Strength and cardiovascular fitness peaks at age of 25, followed by steady decline. Although it was predicted that military personnel should reach higher physical fitness level and lower risk factors, there were no significant difference between military and civilian population. Effect of three-month basic training on actual health status is quite positive, it improves body composition, but no special effect on overall strength. Higher levels of physical readiness were found only in small special units.

Such exercises are regular part of European exercise process that in periodical cycles examines individual capacities of solving crisis situations, conducting crisis operations under methods developed by the EU. European training process does not cover only the preparation of military units, but also those of civil elements (police, rescue teams, diplomats). Since 2007 the exercises have been ran according to a common scenario "ALISIA", with the purpose to practise crisis operations control by commanders and staffs of EU nations, without any means and elements or support by NATO. European exercise process allows to the EUMS to organize and harmonize two exercises of solving crisis situations in a year. Five members of the Czech Army took part in the exercise MILEX 09 last year. They were involved in the operational planning process at the EU OHQ Specialist Staff, CJ2, CJ4, CJ5 and CJ7 departments. The article is mostly based on the experiences of Czech offi cers at the EU OHQ LARISSA.

The author summarizes in several items the history of service PT both before 1990, in the 90s, and finally at the beginning of this century. What tasks are in front of us? First we must create legal basis for a new conceptual frame of service PT; secondly we must form new methods of drills and training for servicemen in special PT skills, with risk exercises, corresponding to warfare and combat situations, backed by respective legislation. The author hopes that our own practice and experiences from abroad of MoD officials will certainly help to create new alternative concepts together with indispensable recreational PT for soldiers, including appropriate forms of physical training for women in uniform.