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Some of the published critiques dealing with midterm planning are not true, as they were created without detailed knowledge of practice and methods how our midterm plan was created. Nevertheless, there are some real faults in midterm planning. According to the author, they are divided into two groups: external-they depend on quality of assignment; and internal-they are connected to the application of theory. Main external fault is the absence of long-term plan. In fact, it was introduced by the Order of Defence Minister, but it has not been worked up thoroughly. We lack adjusting main goals, tasks and priorities for MoD. Next problem are unstable and lacking financial sources. Internal mistakes are as follows: absence of mechanism for balanced changes between cycles of planning; implementation of life cycle cost and level of education of staff preparing data for planning.

At the beginning, the authors introduce modern history of chemical weapons, starting with the deployment of chlorine on April 22, 1915. In the early 70s, the US opened the project BLWS (Binary Lethal Weapons Systems) with the aim to replace old chemical arsenal and eliminate risks tied with the storage of chemical weapons, so did the Russians. Today, new generation of chemical weapons come into being, with higher toxicity, prepared by very simple procedures and means, very heavily degraded. We are proud that the Army of the Czech Republic belongs to those few armies oriented to building chemical-warfare units, specialized and trained to detect the presence of chemical weapons and to decontaminate persons, equipment and vehicles which have been affected by weapons of mass destruction (NBC).

The Centres of Gravity (COG) are characteristics, capabilities, or localities from which a military force derives its freedom of action, physical strength, or will to fight. The COG belongs among the most important operational concepts. It is the main source of power and strength. Without dermining enemy's COG we are not able to carry out any quick and resolute action, to reach ordered tasks, desired objectives. The primary purpose of this article is to offer basic information about this subject. This first part is concentrated predominantly to Carl von Clausewitz's ideas. The article especially aims on disunity and heterogeneity of comprehension of the COG theory in confrontation with contemporary doctrinal publications and original Clausewitz's theory. It highlights coherences that can affect fulfilling political and military objectives in current and future military operations.

The article deals with the state of English e-learning on the premises of the University of Defence. The authoress introduces some pages of the electronic materials used for the General Staff Course as an example of modern methods of learning English. She explains the basic principles of the work with these exercises. There is also mentioned the military English interactive CD-Rom that was published last year and is used as the electronic support for learning military English; and also a new CD-Rom that is being developed now is mentioned because it will be used for the General Staff Course participants as well. Because of the fact that Czech military personnel are expected to serve in multinational operations, this interactive CD-Rom will make their language training easier. In the last part of the article, the opinions of the General Staff Course participants on using e-learning materials are given on the basis of questionnaires.

This article deals with the problem of theoretical base of reflective teaching methods and illustrates practical examples and recommendations of experienced language teachers. In detail it explains the structure and principles of this educational concept, and defines differences from regular teaching methods. The authoress explains both teaching and learning through critical reflection practice, how to develop critically engaged learners. She explains how to gather information on students in class in charge, and enumerates questions to be answered. Reflective thinking by means of feedback enriches both students and teachers. "Reflective" teachers are able to monitor, criticize and defend their own activities, planning, implementation and assessment language programmes and instructions. fl

The reform of the Czech armed forces is factually and timely tied with the transformation of NATO forces, both in the field of technology and that of doctrine. The covering principle of this transformation is the so-called EBAO concept, in the frame of which we define three main transformation objectives: forces must have operational superiority, they must be operationally effective, deployable, and sustainable. The effects-based approach to operations focuses on combining military and non-military actions to influence the overall behaviour and capabilities of other actors: national, trans-national, belligerent and benign, in an operational environment in order do create effects leading to the achievement of strategic objectives and a desired end-state. Its application focuses the planning, execution and assessment of operations. The cited EBAO handbook was followed by several documents (e.g. discussion papers), issued at the end of 2007 as a means to inform future doctrine reviews. Many of the concepts and documents should be validated, either through experimentation, or through specifically designed exercises.

Anti-ballistic missiles are missiles designed to counter enemy's ballistic missiles. First, the author compares strategic patterns reflecting various eras of the former bipolar world. Their mutual balance of that time could be described as Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). As long as MAD was a fact of life, the ABM Treaty fulfilled its important function as a cornerstone of strategic stability. Keeping nuclear arsenals at a level which is not even justifiable is selfcontradictory, as the military strategy and targeting policy is based on the capability of the other side, not on its intentions. Today's Russian policy is shaped by the status-driven desire to deal with the United States from a position of power-related symmetry and strategic parity, by negating the unique position of the United States. The American ballistic missile defence policy used to be also a central element of their containment strategy towards China. However, at present, Ballistic Missile Defence (BDM) sets as a top-priory the defence against the so-called rough states, rather than against Moscow or Beijing.

As the military's current fight against terrorists and insurgents does not follow the templates of the past, it requires innovative, adaptive thinking. This article summarises the main ideas of the essay "We the People are not the Center of Gravity in an Insurgency" by Maj. Mark P. Krieger, published in Military Review No. 4, 2007. A COG could be characterized as a source of power from which a military force derives its freedom of action, physical strength, will to act. The definition is important namely when military planners try to identify enemy COGs. There is a single COG at the operational level; the tactical level of war has decisive points. COGs organize and direct critical capabilities, physical or psychological. An insurgency's case is its strategic COG, its organization is operational COG, and the people are a decisive point at the tactical level. The population is important in an insurgency, because the people are a tangible to target, but it is not a COG. Attacking an insurgency?s organization will weaken the strategic COG that becomes vulnerable to attack and destruction.

In November 2007, under the auspices of Lieutenant-General Vlastimil Picek, Chief of the General Staff ACR, there was the 4th international conference held in Prague, dealing with command, control in Network Enabled Capability environment: NEC-IV. The conference was organized by the Institute for Strategical Studies, Defence University Brno, in cooperation with the Department Communications and Information Systems, DoD, and the Department of the Development of Forces-Operational Department, DoD, last but not least with a civilian Carolina Agency, as NEC principles could be utilized even in civil sector. The conference is regarded as a step from theory to practice, both in the field of education, preparation and practical exercises supported by simulators and trainers. In the immediate future, we must develop the integrated environment for EU Battle Groups, brigade task force, covering the whole operational spectrum, so that we could reach a synergy effect in education, pedagogy, science and research.

At present, artillery problems are rather neglected. Artillery brigade, which consists of two arty battalions, can form two division task forces, up to two brigade task forces, or several battalion task forces. This presupposes establishing unified chain of command points. At present, we may form three main command points of division, brigade and battalion task force. The author depicts tasks and missions of individual levels of task forces, their composition, main elements of command and control. Special attention is paid to centres of combat support, or places of combat support at battalion level. At present, commanders of combat units do not use fully potential of artillery support. Therefore it is necessary to discuss those problems, so that our artillery could be used in most efficient way. The article is accompanied by several charts and pictures, showing schemes and tasks of artillery forces and standardized operational procedures.

In this article the author explores the potential roles for unmanned ground vehicles (tactical UGVs) in the modern battle space as pack mules, fighting scouts and perimeter sentries as new concepts of operation, designs and products emerge. Remote control vehicles could be also used in explosive ordnance disposal operations. Urban warfare looks set to become a particularly rich field for this sort of robots. The article discusses the challenges in developing and deploying cost-effective UGVs on the battlefield. There are still many problems, namely technological. The price for a UGV is comparable to price for four or five wheeled armoured vehicles. The article is based upon materials from RUSI Defence Systems (No. 2/2007), studies by Myron E. Mills, Kevin Ivison, James Masey. Ulf Stremmel; and Andy Simms: Robot Wars. Soldier, No. 12, 2007.

Officially Israel kept quiet about the 5 September 2007 air raid in northeast Syria. Reports indicated that the Israeli operation was triggered by the arrival of a North Korean cargo ship carrying suspected nuclear materials. Israel used electronic attack in air strike against Syrian mystery target. Syrian air defence infrastructure is based on for the most part aging Soviet missiles and radars. This air attack means that Israel is beginning to win cyber war battles. For several decades Israel has maintained a policy of preventing any nation in the Middle East from acquiring nuclear weapons, e.g. in 1981 Israel destroyed the nuclear reactor and thus crippled Iraq's nuclear programme. The destruction of a Syrian nuclear site is a continuation of that policy and a strong message to Iran that Israel is willing to take serious risks to maintain its stance. Based upon Jane's Defence Weekly No 39, 44/2007, Aviation Week No. 17/2007 (nas).

How to master foreign language? There are many methods the teacher can use. The authoress enumerates at least the most important ones: grammatical-translation method and communicative language teaching. Both methods are subdivided into smaller groups, emphasizing different aspects of teaching. The second method puts the stress on communication in practical life. The teacher is only a mediator, learners (students) take over responsibility for mastering foreign language. The language is used prevalently in tangible social context. This method could be called "natural approach". The language acquisition is hard and demands extreme efforts. It is 206 never ending process, assuming perpetual repetition of gained knowledge. At the end the authoress (language teacher at Komorní Hrádek Institute) describes her own experiences with learning foreign language.

This article deals with accrual accounting concept in the terms of the public sector, where-in this context-accrual accounting is understood as a basis of accounting under which transactions and other events are recognized when they occur, and not only when cash or its equivalents are received or paid. Therefore, the transactions and events are recorded in the accounting records and recognized in the financial statements of the periods to which they relate. At first, the article introduces briefly the history of accrual accounting concept implementation in the area of public sector. Secondly, it summarizes main possible benefits and risks connected with the implementation of accrual concept to the public sector accounting.

From the point of history, at present, there is a turn in the deployment of the Czech army. The turning point lies in philosophy change concerning security and defence of our country, as well as in army build-up by itself. In the past, our armed forces used to be semi-professional army, i.e. the core of forces was formed by professional soldiers (officers, NCOs), supplemented by conscripts. In time of peace, all males were prepared and trained during their compulsory military service, after that they were trained as compulsory reserves. In war they could be immediately deployed in war organization. This deployment was planned well ahead, so was its logistical support. Upon examples the USA and Germany the author explains weak points of present organization, which-according to him-constitute a danger for wartime deployment of the ACR. The problem is in questions of mobilization, as volunteer soldiers represent only 0.6 per cent of respective population.

Most people think that working in archives stands for activity with old documents, arranged upon bookshelves. Only few people know that archives means handling information. Today, data are not only in written form on paper, pieces of information are recorded on electronic media. Keeping archives is a part of national heritage; it has informational, scholarly and cultural functions (§ 2, Act No. 499/2004, Archives and Files Services). The author summarizes nearly 90 years of military archives, founded in 1919 by the famous Czech historian Jaroslav Werdstat, as a section of the Czech Country Archives. Very often the Military Archives have gone through difficult periods, and probably with regard to today's army priorities, we could expect uneasy progress even in the near future. This field is not in the centre of attention of army representatives, as it usually does not attract their attention.

Generally speaking, simulations help our soldiers to hone their skills, rehearse their missions. Such simulations are done at the Centre of Simulation and Training Technologies. It is divided into two simulation resorts that have been working for several years. It is therefore high time to summarize their practical experiences and analyse the results reached. This is also the theme of scholarly task conducted by staff members, Faculty of Economy and Management, Defence University Brno. The article presents users' opinions how introduced simulation technologies influence the process of preparations of military professionals. The data were collected by means of questionnaires in which the users expressed their own experiences with the deployment of simulation technologies in both simulation resorts. At the end the author proposes further directions of their advancements.

In his review of the "Phenomenon of Alternative Service: Do not Kill for a State, Nevertheless Serve the Nation" by Bohuslav Pernica, dr. Antonín Rašek evaluates positively the choice of discussed theme, which is not only historical, but it has an importance for the future, as performing social and other activities with the use of a citizen compulsory service is still necessary. Some people consider introducing this sort of general service, together with the so-called volunteerism, as it is in our neighbour-Austria. The book is concentrated on the theme of alternative service mostly from economic point of view, social problems are only hinting and the influence of alternative service on the performance of compulsory military service in the former Czechoslovakia and in the Czech Republic is overlooked. It was in the early 90's when conscripted soldiers were thinking up various reasons why to evade military service, which seriously violated the performance of military service.

The author follows the mainstream economics, i.e. leading economics of defence policy, ranging from economics of defence in the nuclear age, via economics of Iraq conflict, to current fight against terrorism. New paradigm must be drawn, taking into account source management, the distribution of economics weight of individual national economies of all countries participating in the fight against global terrorism.

The purpose of this article is to get readers acquainted with new facts that are arising in the sphere of defence and security of state and at the same time they might influence defence economics research. This recent phenomena came into existence as a consequence of new world layout and events especially tied with massive terrorist attacks after September 2001.

Economy of production, economies to scale, in civilian sector are quite different than economy pattern in defence sphere, as specifying the allocation of sources for the Army of the Czech Republic is not based on exact calculation of costing, payments as we could not observe the substantial terms of comparable partial and overall expenses. At present, we are not fully able to compare defence outputs, nor effecitivity of spent sources.

Those three E are much in use both in official documents and mass media. Dozens of defence officials use them every day, but actual outputs present that they do not know the key essence of 3E, or they are not aware of how to put them into practice. This article would like to help them to make understand the practical application of basic principles of 3E in practise. The reason of this gap, according to the author, lies in insufficient ties between theoretical and executive spheres of defence sector.

Thispaperdealswiththeareaof organization values or to say it better, by organisation culture, including its importance for overall efficiency and effectivity. It is a set of values, norms, beliefs, attitudes, assumptions. The authoresses explain those terms, cite their definitions. They underline the fact that highly motivated servicemen are the real assets for our forces. We have to do our best to recruit them, to set up such quality of military life, so that they would like to serve for longer periods.

This second and closing part of this security study covers decades before the half of this century. The leading role in prevention and fight against armed conflicts will rest namely upon intelligence services. It is also expected the mass use of nonlethal weapons. The US will stay as the only leading superpower, minority expects a plurality model, i.e. the US will be only first among the equals. Some predicts the collapse of the EU. The Army of the Czech Republic ought to achieve full operational potential around the year 2012. It will take part in multinational missions. The Alliance armies should have 8 per cent of their capacities fully operable abroad. Under the preventive strategy, the regions of their prospective deployment will be in bordering countries around Europe, areas around the Eastern Mediterranean, or in the Far East. More or less, one problem remains still open: whether foreign deployments of the ACR really correspond to the interests and needs of the Czech Republic.

The subject of this comprehensive study: the main features of global risk society can be embodied by ecology crises, global financial crises, threat of terrorism. The article is presented as a report to military community and audience, with the underlying focus on terrorism. The author is mapping the global future in the first two decades of this century. As a small country we must pay attention to the developments in the worlds leading powers: the U.S., China, Russia, last but not least, within the EU. Those themes also present individual headings of this study. He treats energy, demography, peace, security, good neighbourly relations, cooperation between states that are most desirable goals we want to reach. In a way, as the main actor of worlds security situation till 2020 is identified Islamist terrorism (radical Islamists, Al Qaeda). At the end Mr. Balabán recalls the former "Security Policy of the Czech Republic" released ten years ago, reminding us the necessity to be prepared for the worst scenarios.

Summary of Security Com174 munity Views - Part One. Despite the fact that most of the predictions made in the early 20th century did not realized, there are still plenty of arguments for drawing security prognoses as the only method assessing synthetic alternatives of future progress. The future is not unequivocally determined, as the all comprising development is strongly influenced by subjective motives. We must have scenarios upon which we can act, operate, namely in the field of security. The government ought to set clearly our security agenda, where and why we are going to make possible military engagement. All further actions are developing from those prognoses, i.e. buying tanks, helicopters, parachutes, armoured vehicles, etc. The first part of this security study covers several predictions containing even some controversial visions. They are based upon the opinion survey done among members of Czech military community. The field of investigation comprises EU, US, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Africa, Asia, even hypothetic Russia-China conflict, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and the like.

Security situation has been changing all over the world, so has in regional territories. It is necessary for us to create systematically new safety culture with regards to contemporary knowledge and experiences. The Czech Republic contribution to the safety of democratic states must meet their expectations; prospective security studies will have to bring new knowledge and technology which, first of all, will increase the level of general capabilities of the Czech Republic and at the same time to take into consideration the needs of national economy and Czech environment. Capital investments into security research are necessary as a basic input for the safety preparedness level of the CR. For these purposes it is desirable to establish security research that will be able to produce ideas and technologies which will sustain and renew the Czech Republic safety in changing conditions, among others taking note of a Seventh Framework Programme of EU for research,

On 13-17 March, 2006, the Directorate of Centre of Simulation and Trainer Technologies Brno ran experimental computer-aided exercise dealing with combat activities of a Battalion Task Force (BTF) in urban area. It was outlined as a double-sided opponent procedural exercise, with the use of computer potential, in attendance of staff and personnel from Special Force Command, Support and Training Force Command, Training Base Vyškov, Military Academy Vyškov, designated unit commanders from Special Force, namely 72 Mech Bt. This experimental exercise proved right some factors that are prepared in accordance with NATO operational concept USECT (Understand, Shape, Engage, Consolidate, Transition). In the first place, the experiment demonstrated the practicability of manoeuvre attack by BTF on fully prepared opponent's defences and subsequently occupying his positions and locations, even though at the cost of relatively higher losses of combat vehicles. The article is accompanied by the Table of Exercise Summary.

The return of Russia as a power that begins again to partake in political agenda of present-day world raises the necessity to reflect its inner developments in the background of its recent history. There are six key factors that substantionally influence the position of Russia in the world: large sources of raw materials (pipelines); outstanding military capacities (the world's second nuclear potential); high level of general education; wide scientific and research base; permanent membership in UN Security Council and in the Group of Eight (G-8); deciding influence in the near neighbourhood. The study comes to the conclusion that Russia-in the horizon of 2020-will belong among world's leading actors, together with the US, the EU, China, and Islamic world. Russia will be able to of enforce its foreign and security goals, both in post-Soviet areas and in key regions in Europe, Asia and in the Great Near East. As such, it will probably get into conflict with the US. The priority tasks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will rest on maintaining nuclear parity with the US and building capacities for asymmetrical operations.