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The US military presence in Afghanistan has been the subject of retrospective analyzes that facilitated the identification and learning of important lessons for future military actions. This article analyses, through the case study method, the way defense resources were managed from a sustainable development perspective, focusing on the durable effects of the main projects aimed at ensuring this country's initial steps towards a sustainable development destination. As a result, this study points to the positive potential that the military instrument could have in a country's efforts to achieve sustainable development goals, highlighting the way that unsustainable management practices can compromise or even nullify the progress in this area. Consequently, the main product of this research is a model of unsustainable use of defense resources that decision makers should know and avoid in the future, to obtain long-term beneficial results.

Security and defence issues have always been the subject of scientific and artistic interest. The topicality of the researched issues is especially emphasized in the conditions of changing the concepts of security and bringing them from the traditional level to a level reflecting the modern reality. The article attempts to review the genesis and development of the security concept by presenting related and fundamental concepts, related and synonymous terms of the term "security", and various levels of security. The authors try to briefly describe the problem, which is reflected in a number of Bulgarian and international scientific and legislative sources, and which reflects the research purpose of the presented work.

Russian aggressions against Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014) led NATO into unprecedented changes in the NATO deterrence and defense posture at its eastern flank. The establishment of NATO Force Integration Units with their mission to facilitate high readiness forces deployment was one of the measures taken. The role and tasks of NATO Force Integration Units are very complex. They include a variety of different tasks across all levels: strategic, operational and tactical from peacetime up to activation of Article 4 or 5 of the Washington Treaty. Besides the main mission, these tasks consist of: assurance, deterrence, planning, information sharing, situational awareness, and liaison to Host Nation including contribution to strategic communication. The complexity of the performed tasks and their location in capital cities make NATO Force Integration Units an effective and valuable element of the NATO deterrence and defense posture at the eastern flank.

The article outlines the outcome of a comprehensive researche aiming at the enhancement of decision making within the defence and operational planning processes. Both processes differ in purpose, neverthelles they are challenged by the very same problém to find solutions with maximum operational effectiveness of armed forces capabilities at minimum cost to achieve objectives. It applies constructive simulation namely the software instruments of MASA SWORD and assess its potential to support the process of capability requirements identification and validation of potential alternatives to achieve objectives. It provides reasonable evidence that constructive simulation is a valuable instrument to support the evidence based decision making within in the processes of defence planning and operations planning proces. Constructive simulation allows to identify the most suitable solutions in terms of both operational effectiveness and costs.

The article analyses the process of the NATO enlargement after 1990. It starts by a detailed analysis of the secret negotiations which have been started just after the end of the Cold War. In the light of the institutional liberalism, the NATO enlargement is a positive process which satisfied especially new member states. But in the light of the American neorealism, this process resulted into profound changes in the balance of the security threats and into a large militarisation and tension at the new Eastern frontier of NATO in a direct neighbourhood with the Russia. New military units with the modern arms systems are deployed over there and we are witnessing a growing number of dangerous military incidents. As a result, the contemporary situation needs new political negotiations between two competitors and a shift from the contemporary negative Peace towards the positive Peace.

In spite of the fact that it is a new concept, it presents one of key methods of international engagement in crisis areas the EU prefers. Its main components are crises prevention and securing stabilization. Security tasks are composite problems solving one of main state functions: to guard external and internal security together with principles of civil control. This essay among others aims to explain practicability of the EU's concept of preventive engagement as a tool of implementation of the European Security Strategy, further it describes European concept for crisis management missions in the field of civilian administration supporting security and justice. At the end there are some recommendations for the Czech Republic how to form capacities for EU missions and for the transformation of Czech security sectors.

The paper is focused on the issue how to develop and strengthen the competencies of military leaders essential for management of the Lessons Learned process in the Czech Armed Forces. The analysis shows that the issue of lessons learned is sufficiently addressed in relevant military documents which provides a foundation for definition of relevant competencies. Questionnaire survey proves that most respondents apply identified competencies related primarily to analysis phase and the verification of lessons identified. The article further presents a study curriculum proposal that can be used as a comprehensive framework for study programs within career education currently provided by the Center for Security and Military Strategic Studies of the University of Defence and the Training Command - Military Academy.

The article deals with the issue of the cognitive pyramid and the possible use of intelligence analysis in the context of gaining the understanding and wisdom of users of information using this pyramid. The cognitive pyramid is used to define the terms date, information, knowledge, understanding and wisdom that make up the various levels of the pyramid. The paper attempts to discuss concepts in different models of the pyramid. It briefly describes intelligence in the context of the use of intelligence by means of a cognitive pyramid. Intelligence is a special kind of knowledge. This article also seeks to explore how intelligence creation can be explained using a cognitive analytical pyramid model.

Government expenditures allocated for defence are one of the categories comparable between countries to observe and analyse long-term trends. The paper compares the defence budgets of the USA and the Russian Federation between 2000 to 2019 with the aim to analyse potential causes of fluctuations in defence spending. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that military budgets are dependent on a combination of various factors such as current domestic policy, the economic cycle and global security and economic issues. The work uses significant as historical milestones to analyses their impacts on the dependent variable of military budget. As these, Operation Enduring Freedom (2001), Iraq war (2003), the inauguration of the US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the economic crisis (2007-2008), the Russian currency crisis (2014) and the Russian annexation of Crimea (2014) were identified.

The term "new wars" is often used to describe how terrorist groups achieve objectives in addition to the "classic" means of intervention by states. Terrorist organizations use asymmetric methods of warfare to target the weaknesses of Western states. Consequently, conventional wars have also changed into hybrid wars. The legal status of terrorist organizations is a major problem for the rule of law. In responding to terrorist attacks, the distinction between crime and terrorism is difficult. The "war on terror" is governed by different rules and principles and is extremely difficult to wage. Conflicts last a long time and victory against terrorism is rarely possible due to the networked structure of terrorist organizations and the way they intermingle with the population. In addition to an alliance-wide approach, there is a national solution to answer these new threats in form of the comprehensive national defense in Austria.

The situation in Chad, republic in north central Africa, could be characterized by permanent political instability. Its population consists of numerous ethnic groups. Arab peoples are important in the north and east, and black African peoples dominate in the south, estimated population of Chad is nearly 10 million, with 250,000 refugees, 190,000 internally displaced persons, 40,000 persons live in camps. The area of planned operation is three times larger then the area of the Czech Republic. On 25 September 2007, the Security Council, by its resolution 1778, approved the establishment in Chad and the Central African Republic, in concert with the European Union, of a multidimensional presence intended to help create the security conditions conducive to a voluntary, secure and sustainable return of refugees and displaced persons. The multidimensional presence shall include a United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT). It is going to be the largest military operation of the EU outside European territory.

The aim of this article is to provide comparison of the main indicators of military power among the individual EU countries, between the EU in total and the U.S., and the comparison of the world's biggest military powers. Current evolvement of changes in military power indicates the shift of the centre of gravity aiming prevailingly eastward towards raising and growing economical powers. Due to the differences of various input data, multiple information sources used for comparison are significantly different. In addition, it is difficult to get them for some isolated countries, the results of which are sometimes only estimated. The study also includes information on the main importers and exporters of the military equipment, as well as the estimation of future trends.

This article examines whether Turkey is ready for a full-scale military conflict with Bashar Al-Assad's Syria. It draws from an adaptation of Clausewitz's concept of three resources that a state must possess to be able to win a war: the fighting forces proper, popular support, and its allies. Turkey is at a significant disadvantage when it comes to its air force and air defense capabilities. Should a major confrontation erupt, Turkey would not be guaranteed to be able to control the relevant air space. Turkish citizens do not favor seeing their country in a foreign quagmire. Despite myriad differences, Turkey it is still deeply embedded within NATO, and its strategic interests do not differ from those of its strategic allies. Turkey also cannot afford to risk an open military conflict with Russia. The article concludes that Turkey is politically and militarily not capable of fighting a full-scale war in Syria.

The article is about the revolt of French soldiers against the failing immigration policy of their country. It explains its rational causes at the historical, geopolitical as well as security levels. It analyses its three main acts since 2013 until today and presents their key actors: the high level generals and politicians. These acts are presented as historical accidents. The article shows that French soldiers refuse to be silent face to face big stakes, especially on the field of defence of the Republic against the growing violence of young immigrants. The text continues with the analysis of two manifests of French soldiers from spring 2021 that evoke the threat of the civil war in France and the role of the Armed forces in such a scenario.

The paper analyses differences in remuneration of professional soldiers in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic between 1999 and 2020. This structural analysis focuses on changes in respective remuneration systems and their design. Results of the presented research enable to identify differences in the development of remuneration of professional soldiers after the split of the Czechoslovak Federation in 1993. The paper submits development of the amounts of salary for selected military ranks, their comparison and relation to general trends in domestic labor market and relation to average costs of living in respective countries. Between 2016 and 2019, salaries of professional soldiers grew higher in the Czech Republic than in the Slovak Republic, in 2020, the pay gap is already narrowing.

Review of the Author's Monography PROCHÁZKA, Josef and Pavel NEČAS. Approaches to Security and Defence Strategy Formulation.

The article is a creative elaboration and proposal for optimization of selected activities of the human resources management process in the Ministry of Defense, which have a fundamental influence on achieving the set goals of personnel policy of the Ministry of Defense. The article builds on the analysis of the "status quo" of the human resource management in the Ministry of Defense, carried out with the help of dimensional and stakeholder analysis, sector analysis PESTLE-M, and questionnaire survey with a sample of officers (students of career courses KVD and KGŠ). It also uses the results of capability-based scenario, on which a prediction of the future needs of personnel and financial resources is calculated and demonstrated. For selected activities of the human resources management process their possible content is discussed, as well as the effects (or the necessity to set them accordingly) of internal and external process controllers.

The article is about the immigration in France and its consequences on the security field. It starts by the historical context and pays a big attention to the development during last two decades. It analyses the process of the islamisation on the cultural, social, security, and political levels. It continues by the French debate which reflects the clash of two contrasting approaches: political correctness vs. critical attitudes. The French experts dispute about two key subjects: the numbers of the immigrants and, namely, the correlations between the immigration and the growing numbers and brutality of the terrorist attacks (the so - called amalgam). The last part analyses the place and the role the immigrants in the French armed forces. This text offers an original periodisation of the phenomena of the immigration in France since the first post WW II years until today. It examines not only its quantitative aspects, but also its qualitative changes.

The article is focusing on challenges connected with execution of the Czech Army military operations in tropical rainforest under umbrella of international organization. The military engagements in the tropical climate depends on unit general characterization and necessary unit competency insufficiently specified in the Czech Army Catalogue of Capabilities. The Czech Army Catalogue of Capabilities standardizes training methods, training cost, and required training area and required training equipment and material. Based on experience gained from the training of the Czech military personnel in Jungle Training Centre in French Guyana, we can assess that to attain required skills for jungle operational environment acquires a few weeks. The international organizations are capable to provide necessary training for jungle operational environment in order to reach required level of skills and competencies before operation execution.

The article deals with the issue of identifying required material reserves, also referred to as strategic or emergency reserves. These reserves are managed by state authority as part of national crisis preparedness. The article explores how scenarios can be used as a method for planning, i.e. determining adequate, realistic, and affordable material reserves. A scenario-based analysis, well proven in the defence planning domain, is identified as a method offering a high degree of analytical rigor and traceability of resulting requirements. Selected planning scenarios clearly must reflect national threat/hazard and risk assessments. They also have to reflect other important national policies, such as those governing economy, industry, health care, or environment. The illustrative conduct of the initial steps of the proposed method is demonstrated using Latvia's security policy circumstances.

This article studies the current stage of development of armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technology in Turkey, within the context of the current media attention caused by its deployment in various conflicts. Authors first provide a classification framework for surveillance and armed drones. Text proceeds with an overview of the technology and its military use. The core of the text focuses on Turkey's past and present use of armed drones. Authors analyse the current stage of Turkey's armed drone development production and export destinations. Furthermore, operational use by Turkey or other parties is discussed. Authors conclude by comparing current generation of Turkish drones to those deployed by the United States, highlighting technological edge on the side of the US, as well as continuing dependency of Turkey's main drone systems on foreign components.

The paper argues that proxy war is an increasingly often used tool in the Middle East, in the already conflicted territories where international involvement is not only enabled, but also attracted and encouraged by the international law for the purpose of region's securitization. Thus, the paper's aim is to increase awareness on the fact that the Middle Eastern countries passing through civil war periods and accepting external actors to deal with their crises do not only become fertile territories for proxy wars, but the intervening actors start pursuing their own interests beyond the host country's interest in resolving the conflict.

Is Georgia's integration into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) security structures leading to assured full membership? Ever since gaining independence in 1990, Georgia has tried to free itself from Russian influence, focusing on becoming a member of NATO. However, the Georgian journey to NATO is complicated by the country's internal political situation and external relations with Russia. Georgian internal conflicts with breakaway territories supported by Russia led to the Russian invasion into Georgian territory in 2008. Russia suppresses Georgian efforts to join NATO, considers the South Caucasus to be a strategic sphere of interest, and intends to exercise its influence there. Nevertheless, the current Georgian government continues to pursue NATO membership. Key determinants for any invitation to new members are whether their admission to NATO will strengthen the alliance, further the basic objective of NATO enlargement , and increase security and stability across Europe.

The article is based on the neorealist theory and is aimed to the analysis of the military doctrines of the USA published between 2012 - 2018. It evaluates them as the consequence of important changes after the end of the Cold War, namely the process of the enlargement of NATO. The article explains the US doctrines as a manifestation of a reinforced military self - esteem of the USA and warns that these doctrines should lead to an increase of the military tension at the Eastern frontier of the enlarged NATO.

Research into the historiography of the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction involves an excursion of the study of recent problems of Chemical Corps in the literature. Four basic periods were identified in the development of the theory of Chemical Corps and the concept of the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction. 1. The First World War and the foundation of Czechoslovakia as a period of changes in the principles of military leadership due to the existence of chemical weapons. 2. The period after the end of World War II, reflection on threats in the form of the development of Chemical Corps, the take-over of Soviet doctrine and military research objectives. 3. 1990s as a period characterized by an accent on the Gulf War, proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and the introduction of new technical means of Chemical Corps. 4. Beginning of the 21st century and the threat of ultra-terrorism, the development of specialized capabilities of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defence, birth of the 9th Chemical Protection Company of immediate response and literary dominance of international security issues, which outweigh force protection problems in operations. The researched articles illustrate the originality of scientific thinking and the social contribution of scientific literature to the defense sector.

The article studies possibilities of utilization of Global Navigational Satellite Systems Galileo and BeiDou in the Armed forces of the Czech Republic. It analyses its advantages, weaknesses and assets the army. The study is grounded in knowledge and experience of the Czech military geographic service and supports it with comparisons with already implemented systems GPS and GLONASS. European project Galileo brings for the most part independence on GPS and direct influence of the Czech Republic. Chinese system BeiDou provides individual alternative, although with limited access. In combination with multiconstelation receivers, they can substantially complement the current structure, make more accurate measurements and lower vulnerability to jamming and spoofing/deception. AČR may utilise benefits of the systems with modernisation of devices a by participation in development projects of global navigation.

The goal of this informative article is to comprehensively describe the causes of the formation and integration of cyber forces and information operations into the structure of the Army of the Czech Republic, including other significant connotations. The intention is not to present new scientific findings, but to point out the meaning of the existence of cybernetics and information operations as a necessary separate component of the Army of the Czech Republic capable of responding to the dynamic development of the security environment and the continuous development of modern technologies. The content and main arguments of this article reflect the transition from the classical form of warfare to the new platform, represented mainly by cyber space and a hybrid combination of a wide range of power tools with an emphasis on information operations.

Space applications and use of satellite data became an important tool for production and development of many companies and institutions, as well as indispensable part of our daily lives, when using e.g. satellite navigation or TV broadcasting. Proper functioning of those services, however, requires the security of space assets at the orbits, their ground stations and the transmition links. The basic threat for space assets is the growing number of debris at the orbits. Space Situation Awareness has a growing importance and sharing information among all main space actors becomes a pre-requisite. Efforts to agree on common guidelines to mitigate possible risks related to outer space activities are made both within the UN and the EU as well as among all space agencies.

This paper deals with the phenomenon of Jihadist foreign terrorist fighters from the perspective of East Central European countries. Over the past decade, the term 'foreign terrorist fighter' has become established in scholarly literature, international law and the popular consciousness. Today, Jihadist foreign terrorist fighters are closely watched globally for the security threat they pose. Although the greatest danger in Europe is seen to be to nations in the west, several cases in East Central Europe - involving terrorists travelling through the region and attempting to radicalise local jihadists - have led Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to adopt important legislation to eliminate this threat.