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The article examines infiltration and influence operations targeting members of the Active Reserves of the Czech Armed Forces as a specific non-conventional risk factor for critical infrastructure protection. As a bridge between civilian and military spheres, the Active Reserve is exposed to psychological and informational pressures affecting loyalty and operational readiness. The paper summarizes theoretical approaches to the insider threat phenomenon, identifies human-factor vulnerabilities, and compares the Czech framework with selected NATO, EU, and U.S. models. It concludes with recommendations for preventive measures focused on education, cognitive resilience, and integrated risk management within national defense and critical infrastructure protection.

This article analyses the current state of international humanitarian law (IHL) considering the armed conflict in Ukraine. It explores the theoretical framework of IHL, the typology of the conflict, recent legal developments, and their practical impacts. Special attention is given to the failures of international law in protecting civilians, the limitations of legal enforcement, and proposals for improving the system's effectiveness. The aim is to contribute to scholarly debate on the future of legal regulation in armed conflicts.

Leadership and its styles have been in the spotlight for many years. The changing military environment and demands on army readiness bring new questions and perspectives to leadership. Leaders now face constant changes and specifications of the new modern era. Concerning these changes and transformations in society and the Army, there are new demands on soldiers and leaders at all levels of the Army of the Czech Republic. This paper provides insight and muse about both transactional and transformational leadership styles and investigates an approach to these styles by Czech military students. This paper aims to identify what leadership style Czech military students prefer at the University of Defence. This research focused on evaluating the personal characteristics required for a leadership position. To verify the relevance of the gained results, we employed paired t-test.

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.

The article discusses the history and present state of instruction in the Arabic language in the Armed Forces of the United States and the United Kingdom within the context of their engagement in the Middle East. The analysis of the evolution of institutions tasked with Arabic language instruction since the end of the World War II mainly addresses the issues of fast language-capacity building and the cooperation between the Armed Forces and the academic sector. The main issue in state-organized instruction in non-standard languages is a discrepancy between the required long-term nature of building of linguistic capacities and an immediate need of states addressing new regional challenges requiring a specific knowledge of new languages.

The paper evaluates the level of cooperation between the Ministry of Defence and the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) in the field of procurement of military equipment. In the practical part, the results of the research on the level of participation of Czech-based suppliers in NSPA activities between 2018 and 2022 are presented. Pareto analysis comparing the participation of the Czech and international companies in contracts implemented by NSPA in terms of their subject, quantity and financial value is used. Qualitative case studies from three different areas illustrate in which NSPA projects the Czech Republic has already been involved in and which benefits and risks are associated with this cooperation for the MoD. Positives and drawbacks in the process of acquiring military equipment in-house and opportunities and threats that may arise from the acquisition of military equipment through the NSPA are summarised in the form of the SWOT analysis. Finally, recommendations are presented on how to improve the cooperation between the MoD and the NSPA in the field of acquisition.

The article concerns the issue of arson attacks in Israel.The issue of terrorism in Israel is quite broad, given that it is a very common phenomenon here and Israel deals with terrorism on a daily basis. The paper therefore focuses on incendiary balloons, a weapon that repeatedly caused fires around the Gaza Strip between 2018-2023. It examines their history, their design, outlines the possibilities of their elimination, the advantages and disadvantages of possible technical solutions, and a reflection on the future of their usage.

The article presents selected functionalities of intelligence support in the Czech Armed Forces, which are addressed in the context of opportunities and challenges of the future operating environment. Its aim is to formulate, in parallel reflection with the current approaches of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the possibilities of implementing intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and electromagnetic warfare in national conditions. Military practice is presented with a direction on how to respond to changes in the nature of the operational environment, including changes in the physical and non-physical domains of the battlespace to which all components of modern military forces must adapt while maintaining the necessary interoperability. The article is a response to differing and often not entirely correct understandings of the issue, which can be found even among specialists. It summarizes what has been learned so far and suggests where the discussed functionalities should go.

The article deals with the consequences of changes in society and the army after the "Velvet Revolution" in 1989 for teaching social sciences at military schools. The changes are illustrated by the example of the Military University of the Ground Forces in Vyškov, which trained most of the officers for the ground troops. The first part of the article shows the use of social science teaching at military schools to ideologically indoctrinate students in favour of the ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia before November 1989. The next part of the article deals with the reflection of changes in society and in the army after the abolition of the article on the leading role of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the Constitution in the system of teaching social sciences, in their content and scope. The content of the article also shows individual milestones in the process of changes in the teaching of social sciences on the way from their use for communist indoctrination to the formation of democratic army officers.

The selection of optimal weapon systems is crucial for national defense. Traditional empirical methods struggle to address the complexities of modern warfare. This article explores the potential of constructive simulation for informed decision-making in this domain. Simulating tactical operations with complex variables, such as terrain, enemy actions, and system interoperability, provides valuable insights into weapon effectiveness. This enables the optimization of acquisitions in line with strategic goals. Design simulation allows for the exploration of factors difficult to test comparison of armament configurations, analysis of enemy tactics, and optimization of unit composition and deployment, saving costs and time. Simulation enables the safe exploration of even high-risk scenarios.

This article examines the needs and problems of the modern war veterans and identifies factors that may contribute to making them a  high-risk group. It uses data from two questionnaire surveys. The respondents were war veterans leaving active service and war veterans who left active service less than ten years ago. The analysis shows that participation in the mission has a negative impact mainly on the family and relationships, and that the most common problems on leaving active service are related to finances and finding a new job. Further, few factors have been identified that may contribute to a high-risky group: less than nineteen years of service, age under forty, having health restrictions due to active service and leaving service as a decision of the employer.

The article addresses the use of social media intelligence (SOCMINT) as a tool for recruiting and selecting souces by foreign intelligence services, with an emphasis on the risks it poses to students in military studies at national military universitiy. It analyzes the specific ways in which SOCMINT enables foreign intelligence agencies to effectively gather personal data and profile potential collaborators from both public and private information shared online. Research conducted among students of the University of Defense and other institutions revealed that military students share comparable types of information on social networks as their civilian peers, making them equally vulnerable to the activities of foreign intelligence services. However, military students are preparing for careers in defense and security, making them a significantly more attractive target for foreign intelligence agencies than other categories of employees.

Biosafety and biodefense (i.e. all countermeasures preventing the spread of biological agents in the environment and population) are on the regular agenda of states and their militaries. Somewhat aside are global catastrophic biological risks (GCBR), which can destroy human society as a biological species. Although a precise definition of what constitutes a global catastrophic biological risk is still being sought, it can be considered the impact of potential global catastrophic risks (GCR) on the social, economic and biological structure of human existence. This implies that GCBRs are a subset of GCRs. It is also open to discussion whether in the case of GCBRs the risk must necessarily be biological agents, from viruses to humans, or whether anthropogenic threats can also be accepted as risk factors, or what the impact must be for a risk to be included under the designation GCBR.

This article presents the first systematic analysis of cognitive resilience education within the Czech Ministry of Defence, which is growing in importance in the context of contemporary hybrid threats. Through methodological triangulation (document analysis, questionnaires, interviews), the research maps the coverage of relevant topics across all levels of formal military education. The SWOT analysis reveals both existing foundations for cognitive resilience development and the absence of a systematic approach to this issue. The results highlight three main challenges for transforming the educational system: systematisation of the approach, personnel resources, and infrastructure modernisation. The study establishes an empirical basis for strategic recommendations to strengthen military personnel resilience against information and psychological operations.

The preparation of soldiers for future employment in the civilian labor market is a critical issue that requires attention. This research aimed to identify soldiers' preferences regarding their transition to civilian employment after their military service. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 128 active-duty soldiers from two units of the Czech Armed Forces. The majority of respondents prefer a second career in the private sector, and most would like to start preparing several months before their service ends. Many respondents expressed interest in expanding their skills to improve employability, with retraining courses being the most preferred option. Overall, interest in the offered support tools for career transition was significant, with the job portal being the most favored. Many respondents believe soldiers face difficulties in securing civilian employment after their service and assess the current system for preparing soldiers for a second career as underdeveloped.

The article deals with the possibilities of protecting the outer perimeter of static military facilities using ground-based unmanned systems that can complement the already existing protective elements. The conclusions reached and theoretical assumptions were experimentally verified in the field during the protection of a small base, using UGS Taros Furbo and Tactical Decision Support System calculations. The protection routes calculated by the system were then practically implemented by dismounted patrols and autonomous UGS Taros Furbo, focusing on terrain traversability and time of overcoming. The main objective of the paper is to present to the military public the current possibilities of deploying UGS Taros Furbo in the protection of static military facilities such as command posts or bases. Their use can significantly reduce the requirements for the deployment of dismounted patrols to protect the outer perimeter.

Experienced experts in military modernization projects use a new generic implementation tool in defence planning to compile a comprehensive implementation plan for acquisitions. A software tool based on MS Excel facilitates the linking of a planning tool to create an implementation plan. The functional analysis matrix created by the software tool is suitable for the evaluation of DOTMLPFI functional areas within individual phases, especially the implementation phase and the evaluation phase. The resulting product is a checklist for the full implementation of a military project describing its life cycle with all major milestones, which respects the Czech Defence Standard and compatibility with NATO doctrine.

The paper assesses the conceptual framework for Czech defence policy formulation in the wake of a rapid change in its security environment after Russia's annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the subsequent Russian support for separatists in Ukraine's eastern provinces and growing instability in the Middle East and North Africa. The article examines key measures taken in the political, military, administrative, economical and societal domains in order to evaluate the overall effectiveness of Czech defence policy. Finally, the authors offer several strategic level recommendations to enhance responsiveness and preparedness of the Czech defence system and Armed Forces as one of its most significant components both in short- and long-term perspective.

The article deals with the comparison of refunds of non-material damage in public and private area. In the public area is analyzed legal regulation on health injuries in service relations, in private area is discussed legal regulation on health injuries in civil law and labour law. Particular attention will be focused on the transfer of compensation in the event of injury to the heirs - while in service relationships, such claims are extinguished by death (not transferred on the heirs), which was taken over from the 1960s legislation, in current private law, do not cease if they have been recognized or at least brought in court. The aim of the paper is a critical analysis for the current state of legal regulation and the proposals de lege ferenda (approximation to labour law regulation). The issue has increased importance for public finances and functioning of public sector and enforcement of the rule of law.

Grey Rhino is a metaphor for security threat, which is unkept irrational for large extent also high probability of harmful effect on a subject of risk owner. Business continuity management system is assessed in a diagram as controlling instrument aimed at operational hazard mitigation of continuity disturbance of affected subject. A ´from Operations´ Value Added - O´VA is established as qualitative dynamic information about productivity of activities. The measures are designed in crisis scenario for quality improvement of subject´s crisis readiness. An indicator of business risk continuity slip is defined. In a connection with war conflict on Ukraine is assessed if it is Grey Rhino manifestation.

The process of procuring military equipment, technology, material, and associated services (VM) is frequently shrouded in concerns about cost-effectiveness and, in some instances, even becomes the focus of law enforcement investigations. This often leads to delays in strategic investments and exposes involved individuals to the risk of criminal charges. Additionally, there is a notable lack of capacity to impartially evaluate the overall investment's efficacy. Consequently, the "Znalec" (Expert Witness) project was initiated as a part of the defense research program. Its objective is to explore the feasibility of establishing an expert institute that could impartially assess the value of the military procurements, set a standard for evaluating these assets, and outline a training program for relevant experts. This paper specifically addresses the first objective of the project, proposing a legal framework for the expert institute based on an extensive systems analysis.

The article focuses on the characteristics of forcible entries into objects and the term "breaching", which is often used interchangeably with this activity. The article further addresses the issue of fragments scattering when using a charge to overcome chain-link fences. The introductory chapter describes the execution of training in this field using the exercise facilities that are built for this purpose in military training areas. When conducting explosive forcible entry training, the safe distance for intervening teams and non-participants is determined using given formulas. The purpose of the simulation, mathematical calculations and experiment was to assess the extent to which fragments scattering occurs during explosive overcoming of these fences and whether the procedures used to determine the safe distance for non-participants are sufficient.

The article presents more than ten years of experience in testing the abilities of pilots during flight control on flight simulators. A hypothesis is stated about the possibilities of finding common features in flight control, the basic mathematical apparatus for evaluation is presented, the flight simulators used and, of course, the achieved results are presented. 110 pilots have already been tested and a total of 2360 missions - test flights - have been simulated. Subsequent mathematical analysis provided approximately 40,000 results suitable for further statistical processing. This amount of data obtained from realistically simulated flights provides a prerequisite for defining applicable conclusions to the proposed mortgages. For the needs of subsequent certification, a proposal for the pile measurement methodology was also prepared, which summarizes both the theoretical approach to pile testing and the procedure for carrying out tests on individual simulators. Part of the proposed methodology includes an overview of the software created to facilitate the recording of data from individual missions, as well as software for own analysis of the measured data from the missions.

The personality of the seventh Czechoslovak president, army general Ludvík Svoboda, is well known to older generations, younger generations are aware of him because of the controversies of recent times. Although there are many biographies of Svoboda, they are mostly determined by the time of their creation and the effort to avoid naming the problems of the time.

Laser weapons have long been the subject of debate. The article discusses the potential adoption of laser weapons by infantry units and the future of small firearms. The text analyses these weapons in selected categories that subsequently support the evaluations and the conclusion. If miniaturisation is successfully managed, the comparison reveals an interesting paradox. While laser weapons and firearms do not rival each other as distinct functionalities, given the right conditions, they can actually complement each other and compensate for any disadvantages within their respective categories. Today's complex battlefield is placing ever greater demands on small arms, pushing conventional weapon mechanisms - combined with ammunition that guarantees accuracy and lower recoil, albeit at the expense of penetration - towards the limits of further possible advancement in technology. Improved passive individual protection restricts the wounding potential of pistol ammunition, reducing it to below 150 m for rifle cartridges, while guided ammunition tends to be prohibitively expensive. Under the right conditions, laser weapons could compensate for any of these drawbacks.

The aim of the paper is to determine the extent of the use of strategic and decision-making analysis methods and the specifics and barriers of their practical application in the process of creating conceptual documents in the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic. In the qualitative research, a semi-structured questionnaire was created for the purpose of data collection and submitted to eighteen creators of the department's conceptual documents. The obtained data were evaluated by open coding according to the grounded theory, one of the methods of systematizing qualitative data. The results show that the methods are used, but informally or in a modified form - adapted to the specifics of the department. Barriers to the use of methods, are primarily the varying level of competence of the creators, the inappropriateness of certain methods for certain types of documents, time pressure or the preference for an intuitive approach. The ideal strategy seems to be a combination of the intuitive and rational approach.

The research described in this paper was conducted in the framework of institutional research project Strategic Alternatives (STRATAL) within the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies of University of Defence, The Czech Republic. Article assesses the development of Czech Defence policy in 2017 and first half of 2018. Authors analyse key change drivers in external environment (security threats, EU strategic autonomy, transatlantic link). In second step authors evaluate measures taken in political, military, administrative, economical and societal domain in response to key change drivers and highlight related risks to effective defence policy formulation and implementation.