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comprehensive cooperation within reliable security partnerships. Thus, regional tailored military cooperation has gained more importance than ever before in order to tackle various threats and challenges and to strengthen crisis management capabilities. Therefore, Austria launched the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC) in 2010 to foster regional security cooperation and to promote modernisation of military resources. Two years later, Austria co-founded the EU Mountain Training Initiative, which closely coordinates training and education with the NATO Mountain Warfare Centre of Excellence in Slovenia. This paper aims at analysing and discussing current initiatives and possible ways of improving Central European security cooperation between NATO member states and Austria.

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

The future security environment through 2035 and beyond will likely be increasingly complex and both present challenges and offer opportunities to NATO military forces. Analysis of the future security environment indicates that forces will likely face challenges that could unfold in an exponentially accelerated and increasingly complex fashion. As trends converge in the future, there are twelve likely instability situations that could reach a threshold requiring the Alliance's use of military forces, including: weapons of mass destruction/effect use, conventional war, escalatory use of force, hybrid war, unconventional war/terrorism, global commons disruption, critical infrastructure attack, cyberattack, governance challenges, endangerment of civilian populations, pandemic disease, and natural/man-made disasters. However, there are also many opportunities that NATO military forces could seize in the future, including building and strengthening relationships, addressing emerging challenges, capitalising on innovative technology and ideas to maintain the military edge, and understanding and influencing the human aspects of conflict. Ultimately, to keep the operational edge today and in the future, NATO joint forces and partners will need to continually evolve, adapt, and innovate to improve their ability to act together comprehensively across all domains to communicate and achieve the political-military objectives of the Alliance.

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 brings a "Condition-If-Then" construct as a proven protocol for writing risk statement and its application into assessing risks related to capability gaps identified during the defense planning processAuthors discuss utility of "Common approach" and "Impact averse approach" to risk rank ordering as a tool for ordering risks according to their importance. Using the discussed tools enables the planners to run risk assessment that sets preconditions for prioritizing the Force Development Options (FDOs) and for minimizing the impact of capability gaps on conduct of future operations. The ORAMF and the application of the given protocol for writing risks are some of the building blocks of the defense planning process, offering a toolset for reinforcement of the defense planning of the Czech Republic.

When planning and conducting tactical exercises of units and formations, it is often the case that aspects of long-term operations in a chemical, biological or radiological contaminated environments have disappeared from consideration of commanders and staff officers. The reluktance to "complicate the situation" in training may have different causes, but the continuing importance of CBRN defence is indisputable. The article discusses probable commander questions related to the effective management of subordinate units in a contaminated environments. Their answering can help to successfully fulfill defined combat tasks that have been disrupted by the use of enemy weapons of mass destruction, improvised devices containing highly toxic substances, or leakage of industrial hazardous substances into the environment.

The article deals with some aspects of long-term planning in the sector of theMinistry of Defence. Its aim is to stimulate discussion about the methods and processes of long-term planning, to point out some shortcomings in the development of strategic documents in the past. The text also describes the basis for long-term planning process and particularly the role of long-term foresight. The author analyses lessons learned from the developing and implementation of Long-Term Vision of the Ministry of Defence document (2008) and tries to aply them in drafting a new document, The Long-Term Vision for Defence in 2030, is now being prepared under the leadership of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. He also highlights some of the theoretical principles for developing documents in the process of strategic management.

The article is based on the positions of neo-realism, namely in the works by S. Walt and J. Mearsheimer. It characterizes the key actors of the war in Ukraine, which is a result of a long-term geopolitical competition between the USA and RF in the Black Sea region. The NATO enlargement in the area is classified as a non-coercive Expansion by Invitation (articulated by the elites of the former member states of the USSR and Warsaw Pact), which has provoked growing irritation of Russian political and military elites and the following hybrid war with dramatic international consequences. Last but not least, the article analyses military incidents and resulting security threats and challenges.

After several years of reducing of the Czech defence budget there is a reversal and the Czech MoD begins to manage the increased budget especially for Czech Armed Forces capability development. The Czech Armed Forces is for many years actively involved in the process sharing multi-national capabilities of NATO. Among the former activities such as Smart Defence and Connected Forces Initiative, is also initiative Framework Nations Concept. This article analyzes the overall framework of this initiative, direction and development of this concept.

The Lessons Learned from the military operations and exercises as a system and process was introduced to the Czech Armed Forces in 2004. Since this time, it become a standard component of command and control, and one of the tools that generates impulses on the development of capability of the units and staffs, at all levels. The article discusses not only the achievements but focusing on the barriers that hinder effective development system and the lessons learned process. In the first part of the article, this loosely follows the article, published in issue 1/2015 magazine Vojenské rozhledy - Czech Military Rewiev, the authors focused on the basic principles of the process. The focus of the article is to analyse the current state of the lessons learned process with result, that one of the main problems is the misunderstanding of the process by some commanders and also analysis of the lessons identified on the strategic level. At the end of the text, the authors presented recommendations on how to overcome the identified barriers and ensure the further optimization of the process.

Successful protection against Weapons of Mass Destruction and Toxic Industrial Materials is a permanent and current challenge for the Czech Armed Forces Chemical Corps units and formations. Technical and technological improvements of the equipment and material as a result of defence development projects mostly contributed to enhancement of operational capabilities. In some cases, however, the required capability has not been changed or has been worsened. The paper deals with principal results of the study which the authors have elaborated in 2015.

The article informs about the state service of professional soldiers in the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. It compares the state service of professional soldiers in both countries mentioned and analyses the changes that took place in the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic on January 1, 2016. With reference to the state service it deals with the career of professional soldiers in the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic. It offers the list of current career courses in the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic. It analyses and compares the career courses designed for officers of both countries.

This strategy has received substantial attention and triggered the discussion about the future of U.S. security policy and America's role in the world. The article argues that American strategy is often misunderstood, particularly in the Czech environment. Obama's defence strategy and its foundations must be explained through the lenses of the balance of threats developed by Stephen Walt. Washington is balancing what it perceives to be the greatest threat to American leadership in the world. Threats are presented by emerging power of People's China, the situation in Middle East. Europe is not less important; it is still an important American ally.

Crime prevention belongs among main and long-term tasks in work with personnel in the MoD Sector. It is organized at three levels: interagency, departmental and local. It is concentrated at decreasing risk factors that usually contribute to criminal behaviour. In the near future, when organizational structure of MoD will be optimalized, current valid documents dealing with crime prevention are going to be reassessed, so they could meet new requirements of command and control system. They will be more directed to problems of extremism, property-related crimes, alcohol addiction, drug and non-drug abuse.

Protection of the civilian population against the Gaddafi regime, it was a clear UN mandate for military intervention in Libya in 2011. Not only a new approach to leading the fight against terrorism after 11 September 2001, but also requires a change in approaches to conducting combat operations coalition forces, as shown by the recent armed conflict in Libya, inevitably required a new perspective on the concept and approach to the process of targeting as the process of selecting and prioritizing targets and responding to them in accordance with operational requirements and capabilities of units, synchronization of NATO forces, particularly with regard to collateral damage with an impact on the protection of civilians. And Unified Protector operation is a clear example.

The article provides necessary information about the link between lifelong learning and the education and training of personnel within the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic sector. It offers the information about the relationship between the class management system and distance and electronic education. It deals with the implementation of the class management system in career courses of professional soldiers under the auspices of the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies of the University of Defence. It clarifies the course of study in career courses, identifies the problems and generates their possible solutions.

The process of the Lessons Learned in the Czech Armed Forces is not ideal for several reasons. One of them is the underestimation of the process by top management. Another one is the low level of awareness of the process, institutions, possibilities and importance of the Lessons Learned Process as a whole. The aim of this article is to clarify the Lessons Learned Process as a tool to support the organization. The first part of the article deals with the process of the Lessons Learned in the Czech Armed Forces including terminology. The second part of the article describes the factual implementation of the Lessons Learned in the Czech Armed Forces. It points out achievements as well as drawbacks during its implementation. In addition to that, it introduces the current Czech military publications dealing with this topic. The conclusion presents the description of some suggestions and recommendations for further development of this process.

The article deals with the use of military police in combat operations during dominance phase.Itdescribes the place androleofmilitarypoliceas combat support units, analyzes experience from previous and ongoing operations and specifies the possible activities of military police during this phase. In conclusion it gives recommendations for the development of capabilities in terms of the activities performed and possible changes in organizational structures. The content of the article is based on thesis prepared by the participant of the 27th General Staff Course at the University of Defence.

The article is related to the building process of Capabilities Development Concept of Military Police (MP) in Ministry of Defence environment. With regards to the specific status of MP within Ministry of defence and with regards to diversity of assigned tasks Capabilities Development Concept of MP is finally hybrid document, containing elements of concept, strategy and long-term development intent. This is positive fact based on unique status of this branch of arms. The author who is actively influencing the proces of concept building is describing his recommendations and observations which might be convenient also for those readers who are not Military Police workers.

Career education of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) personnel is a key component to meet requirements for qualifications. As these requirements are career growth conditions for career personnel, they are inherently connected with further promotion in rank. The MoD Concept of Personnel Development for 2012-2018 sets the direction of the educational development to achieve these qualification requirements. During the process of preparation of the career courses it was revealed that some system changes should be made due to implemented or planned changes within the legislative and source framework of the Ministry of Defence.This article describes the proposal of a new concept for training of personnel in the career courses. It was prepared by a project team headed by the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies at the Defence University. The article also shows the development of the situation since 2004, when the professionalization of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic occurred.

The re-election of Barrack Obama implies that the President preferring political solutions to military ones will have remained for the next four years in the White House. As far U. S. strategy culture is concerned, without doubts American armed forces are going to be prepared to be modern, strong, agile and capable to meet the U.S. National Security strategy goals whatever and wherever they might be. Simultaneously, Obama´s programme for his second term presupposes to close down several military bases all around the world, together with reductions in the size of forces, manpower. Only the most important will be preserved. The further development will be therefore predestined by necessary quantitative reductions, but at the same time by qualitative updating American armed forces, and by the stress on power projection capabilities to take an active approach to counter any threats worldwide.

This article tries to analyse the employees of central state administration, who are involved in analytical, conception, planning and strategy activities. We organized a research at eleven ministries in 2013, to familiarize themselves with their roles. Only three ministries refused to take part in this research (home office, regional development ministry and agriculture ministry). The results reached describe how examined groups evaluated various factors influencing their analytic and conception performances. The identified state at the Defence Ministry is compared with overall situations at other ministries of the Czech Republic. At the end of this article the author expresses certain suggestions and recommendations how to improve current state of affairs.

The motivation and professional values of soldiers involved in Other People's Wars is one of the most important knowledge necessary for effective command and control. Those were main reasons for an extensive questionnaire survey among soldiers, deployed in PRT ISAF in 2010-2011. One of the key topics was motivation to leave for Afghanistan, professional expectations and evaluations of external and internal environment of the mission. The purpose of this paper is to present the basic outlines of values of today's Czech soldiers, their professional motives and expectations. The results are interpreted in the context of Moskos' theory of the contradiction between institutional and occupational orientations of present armed forces and adapted to the actual social and political state of affairs.

The article deals with the issue of creation and realization of space policy. Space programs of individual states are closely connected to decision-making processes of the (general) state (public) policy. Therefore we can raise a question which factors influence these processes and the formulation of space policy and also if they are so unique that could be related only to one particular state. The aim of this article is to focus on one of the factors influencing space policy-strategic culture. Its influence is analysed through case studies of seven nations. Each case study is divided into two parts. First, we identify relevant characteristics of the state's strategic culture. Then, we analyse whether and how the identified characteristics of the respective strategic culture influence the space policy of a state in question. This article seeks to contribute to the growing debate about space as "the next" strategic area and highlights rather overlooked reasons of space exploration.

This paper deals with aspects of intelligence analysis that very often influence the quality of intelligence information utilized by end users. Such analysis requires not only analytical thinking, but also specific experiences of all personnel exploiting collected information. The same body of information may result in multiple analytic products, with different security classifications, time scales, and level of detail. The result of this process is an analytical product - evaluation without any idle speculation and pseudo prophecy. Evaluation and interpretation must describe up-to-date conditions and demonstrate the clusters of future images with alternative developments. Reasonable evaluation reduces uncertainty and makes user's decision easier. At the end the author concentrates on rules of analytical team control and management.

President Barack Obama came to power at a difficult time in America's history. Home and foreign policies are hard to manage, among others, as we are on the threshold of post-ethnic society, and in the war with terrorisms. Obama does not give up American leadership, but he is seeking to find the balance between security and liberty, between power and freedom in the world, broadly speaking. As the consequence, Mr. Rašek presumes emerging the new global security situation: the rise of multipolar world, divided into several new political spheres. This author's opinion is backed by comments by reputable world's political analysts. As far as Euro-Atlantic relations are concerned, or relations with Russia, there are excellent prospects, namely there is the progress with Russia on arms control-part of Obama's determination to put the world on a path toward nuclear disarmament. The author ascribes the drop in Obama's popularity to failed healthcare reform; outside the US, to the fact that Obama is not able to define clear goals and missions in Afghanistan.

The Command and Control process may be defined as an ability to determine what to do and implement effective actions. With the use of the Standard Operating Procedures, the commander must be able to realize set tasks in defined time. The C2 system must be able to monitor and collect data on the situation, to develop an understanding of the situation, to develop a course(s) of action and select one, to develop a plan to execute the selected course of action, to execute the plan, to include providing direction and leadership to subordinates, to monitor execution of the plan and adapt as necessary. The commander draws the picture of situation on the base of surveillance and data collection from various sources, classified and unclassified. The context of information is formed by means of paradigm of personal experiences of commander and his intuition.

The article analyzes several key conclusions of US National Intelligence Council's study "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds", published in December 2012. Primarily it focuses on: the diffusion of global power influencing political, economic and security development on both global and regional scales; rising importance of the Asia-Pacific region for global economy and security; Sino-American security relations; the role that the United States and Europe should be played in the changing geopolitical reality. The conclusions offer the author's own interpretation of certain development trajectories, based on his earlier published monographs, studies and articles.

The paper presents reflections over the issue of armed forces capabilities. It is a phenomenon much discussed and written earlier, namely from the point of its building, estimation and development. Nevertheless the question is whether practical experiences are backed by theory fundamentals. Now we have a chance to introduce the live theory of quality management [1] into this specific and frequented military problem. The article is a polemic consideration over possibilities of introducing capabilities management into command and control capabilities system in armed forces.

There are many items in American foreign policy the Europeans do not agree, namely its tendency towards "strong world leadership". On the other hand, the Americans would prefer stronger Europe, namely in time of world's economic crisis when US defence expenditures are practically frozen, and when pre-emptive strategy by president Bush exhausted most of American sources. Even the Europeans feel that they should profile themselves as independent, strong power, but their Common Foreign and Security Policy is still more political declaration than really military strategy. Many security experts suggest that the Lisbon Treaty excludes NATO membership as far as questions concerning defence are concerned. NATO alliance still expects new strategy that ought to be approved in December 2010. The authors predict the necessity to strengthen the so-called Second Pillar of the EU, as the United States are going to be more oriented towards cooperation with Japan, South Korea and Australia. We must bear it in mind, drawing up long-term visions of Czech Security policy.