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Today we use the Space for military and commercial satellites of passive, non-offensive character. The prospective so-called militarization of Space has qualitatively higher level. It means that offensive means will be located in the Space, probably as part of ballistic missile defence. Antisatellite systems began to be tested in 1959 (US), in 1968 (USSR), or in 2005 (China) respectively. The US administration places emphasis on limited character of created antimissiles defence. In fact, the presentday laws do not ban situating cosmic weapons in the Space. But whereas the United States regards existing agreements concerning the Space as sufficient, explicitly the Russian Federation and China point out that e.g. the Cosmic Treaty of 1967 is inadequate and insufficient and therefore among others they block the signing of Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty, important for the USA. The author presents and summarizes main treatises concerning the Space: Outer Space Treaty (1967), Convention on the Registration (1975), Moon Agreement (1979) and others, all of them hardly known to ordinary citizens.

"Légion étrangere" is a unique elite unit within the French Army established in 1831. It was created as a unit for foreign volunteers. It is known as an elite military unit whose training focuses not only on traditional military skills, but also its strong esprit de corps, including learning French, as its men come from different countries with different cultures. Consequently, training is often described as not only physically hard, but also extremely psychologically stressful. Particular attention is given to the integration of the young recruits. Teaching of the French language occupies a central part of the training, and it is helped by the original training methods of the Legion, the Képi Blanc method, the authors describe in this in this article. They collected data on it during their visit to France (Fort de Nogent) in March 2007. During the four months of training, the Legionnaires work in small groups of two or three, composed of one French speaker and two foreigners. The French speaker helps his comrades when they have trouble understanding something, and part of his accomplishments in this training is assessed by the success of those he was tasked to help.

The main objective of the ACR is the most effective and best defence of the country, with the use of principles of collective defence. But the military activities are accompanied by damages, wastes in living environment. The classification of those effects is being done by the method called Hazard and Impact Index that enables to set probable damages in advance and to adopt preventive measures to prevent them. The process starts with evaluating objects that might be endanger, materials, vehicles, activities, energy, together with impact on environment. Impact groups are divided roughly into two groups: natural surrounding, and socio-cultural surrounding. Some are expected, other unexpected, frequently they are mixed. Most of military damages are unintended, accidental. The article is accompanied by the tables introducing figures of Hazard and Impact Index.

The reviewed book analyses the local wars of the last decades and demonstrates that the problem number one is not their military solutions, but consequent peace arrangement. It is not only a case of Iraq, the authors mention the role of France/US in Vietnam, Russian activities in Chechnya and Afghanistan, Israel in Lebanon, Allied forces in Kosovo. For that reason we can welcome this publication, written and published by the team of authors from the Institute for Strategic Studies, University of Defence, Brno. The book summarizes the experiences from conflicts above, namely the lessons from Iraq. The end of armed conflict in 2003 meant simply the transition to another conflict. A very serious and open problem is the question, whether the system of democracy is suitable for Muslim world. The situation in this country could be openly labelled as a civil war. The authors predict even the desintegration of Iraq into three independent countries. Iraqi conflict is an example of asymmetric warfare, in which more soldiers died in time of "peace" (to this date 3,600 soldiers) than during military operations (139 American soldiers).

This short information is based upon articles widely published in 2005-06 in Western military magazines and newspapers. After September 11, 2001, NATO member states are discussing the deployment of nuclear weapons at non-strategical level. Among others, this is embarrassed by the Russian attitude and general demands of some European NATO nations to update Alliance strategy. What does it mean? There are voices to remove nuclear weapons from Europe. As the alternative to American nuclear weapons they offer forming European nuclear forces, consisting mostly or exclusively of Britain and France potentials. Nevertheless, most of European states ask the US to keep nuclear weapons on European continent. NATO nuclear strategy is still valid: atomic arsenals represent an effective deterrence against the weapons of mass destruction, whoever might use them.

There is a substantional difference between reformation and transformation. The latter represents a qualitative change or the re-creation; while the former is only a change, redressing, correction of errors or faults. In Czech military press, the basic principles of NATO transformation were described several times. Since 2004, when the document "Strategic Vision: The Military Vision" was published, many other documents have been released: Comprehensive Political Guidance (CPG), Guidance for Military Implementation of CPG, Concept for Alliance Future Joint Operations, NATO Task List. Every operational concept has to evaluate all factors from various fields. The method is expressed by the short DOTMLPF, which stands for Doctrine, Organization, Training, Materiel, Leadership and education, Personnel and Facilities. The Concept Development and Experimentation is of multinational character and is the most successful transformation tool within NATO countries, namely in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Norway, etc. Lessons Learned system supplies feedback between national forces experiences and concepts, via DOTMLPF. The key role is played by the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre in Lisbon, Portugal.

NSIP-NATO Security and Investment Programme presents an outstanding field of cooperation among Alliance nations and are the fundamental pillar for planning their common defence. The programme serves for securing necessary sources for investments in building, renovation and establishing air and navy bases, strategic depots, core radar systems, and the like. It also supports individual national commands. The article shortly summarizes the history of NSIP, cites examples of its implementation and formulates proposals how to better utilize common sources of this programme. The Czech Republic belongs among states that still enjoy benefits from common funds, particularly in the connection with the building backbone NATO airports. The genuine contributors are Canada, the U.S., and Belgium; at the head of benefit states are Turkey, Greece, and Portugal. It is recommended for Czech representatives at the HQ Allied Command Transformation to increase number of them in decisionmaking staff elements to prevent administrative complications with allocation of approved investments.

The year 2005 is a breaking one from the perspective both state and military, as new law amendments were adopted, then abolishing compulsory military service (beginning of fully professional forces), and drafting new strategical and concept documents. The relevant document of antidrug policy in the military is constituted by the Order of Defence Minister No. 20/2005: The Prevention of Socially Undesirable Developments. The main stress is put on the prevention of drug addiction, which is framed into common complex fight against alcoholism, addiction, drug abuse in order to we could ensure full effectiveness of our forces. We can use several methods how to implement drugs prevention: by administrative and legal measures (dry laws), economical stipulations (budget means for anti-drugs policy), organizational means (supportive plans such as DROGUES system or LABS, DOGLEG programmes). The author proposes to introduce the so-called zero toleration into army recruiting policy.

Event though our forces are all-volunteer forces, in time of danger and war Czech citizens are bound to serve in armed forces, they biased to be drafted. In 1989 the total of 78.2 per cent were able to serve in the forces, in the following years there was a deep decline in numbers; in 2003 only 43.7 per cent of the conscripts (draftees) were able to meet the requirements of medical classification. Proposed numbers were met only by 20 per cent, as large portion of conscripts declared to be conscious objectors (according to the Act adopted after 1989). It is estimated that only 25 per cent of reserve soldiers are able to serve in time of need in the ACR. The only solution, the author proposes, is to amend the Act 585/04 (Defence Act) by several provisions mentioned in this article. At present, the manpower of the Police of the Czech Republic is twofold higher that numbers of Czech military personnel in time of peace. The Police fulfil large proportion of defence and security tasks, so the author proposes to incorporate some paragraphs dealing with the police force into our Defence Act.

In April 2006, there was another symposium dealing with military professional terminology. Its main purpose was to evaluate experiences with introducing standardized terminology, their levels. Established in September 2004, the Terminology Committee introduces current NATO terminology into all branches of defence department, by means of Standardization Information System. At present, the Training and Doctrine Directorate in Vyškov studies the chance to develop similar database for operational terminology.

Wastes resulted from military exercise and their negative influences are imminent risks for our environment. To eliminate this, first we have to make the classification of wastes and secondly their index evaluation. The indexing can frame negative potential influence of wastes even before actual start of the exercise, so that we can evaluate negative impacts and arrange preventive measures beforehand. With using tablets and charts, the article depicts the process of classification and index appraisal of wastes, originating during military exercise. The method is being developed at the Defence University in Brno and was presented in front of Environmental Training Working Group (NTG/ ASG) and consulted with individual representative of Alliance nations. However Hazard Impact Index method is developed for testing purpose within a mechanised company of the Czech Ground Forces, ACR. Another step is the creation of algorithm for the conversion of index values for higher organic units and levels of the Army of the Czech Republic.

While evaluating spending activities of defence department, it is required to make an audit of results and outputs, besides ordinary accounting and documentation controls. This standard is defined by the European directive for the implementation of audit standards INTOSAI. The author, who is an expertmember in various economy commissions, can seriously declare that the Czech Army is a pioneer institution in the field of monitoring public expenses, namely in comparison with civilian spending ministries.

This piece of writing is a polemic with the article by Maj. Pernica "System of Planning, Programming, Budgeting (and Flogging a Dead Horse)? in Vojenské rozhledy 4/2005. Allegedly, the criticized article quoted some misleading statements, based on financial records, inappropriate for this purpose. Ing. Dušek does not agree with its general idea, introduced out of contexts. The Planning, Programming and Budgeting System was introduced by leading economy experts (e.g. university professor Mr. Ochrana, School of Economy, Prague). Some deficiencies and shortages are inevitable, but as a whole, the PPB system works. Statistics is a dynamic science and statistical data are to be judged only in connection with statistical methods used in years in concern. For example, in answering the Defence Planning Questionnaire, we were asked by NATO authorities to transfer entries for leasing Grippen aircrafts from modernization and development items to the operational item. Consequently, the percentage of investment purchases decreased. The same goes for the percentages of National Gross Domestic Product spent for military budget, and so on. Moreover, MoD financial department put several useful proposals how to make financial flows more clear, but the were refused by the government.

The conscription is a system of compulsory enrolment of men and women into the armed forces. Conscripts may be called to serve in time of peace in order to train for war; they may be called into uniform in time of emergency. Conscripts are distinguished from volunteers and professionals, as well as from mercenaries, who offer their service to any government solely for pay. Recent general discussion regarding reducing duties to perform military service in the Czech Republic between 2000 and 2005 has indicated that the sense of citizens' responsibility for the defence their country is limited, in public eyes, to the conscription only. In reality, the sphere of citizens' defence liabilities is much broader. The comprehensiveness of this issue comes to light particularly when we compare the practice in this area in different NATO nations. In this particular case, the article indicates one of possible solutions to these efforts, i.e. a systemizing approach.

The purpose of the paper is to explain some of the connections among military and public spendings and its influence on forming fiscal policy in the 90s. Security doctrines influence national military concepts, level of defence expenditures, and developments of other spheres of public spending. Defence and other items are parts of spending budget, constituting government's fiscal policy, and vice versa; the economy in respective countries influences defence policy. The author treats the question how Czech expansive fiscal policy reached the limits of its growth, how it was reflected in defence policy. The key military reform proved to be inevitable; the reform of armed forces demanded the reform of civil administration. He comes to the conclusion that in our country, government spendings are not a stimulus of economy growth, even not in a short time period, that it is economy growth that determines public spendings, so does the defence budget.

This year we marked the 10th anniversary of our full membership in NATO. We've verified that the nation can become a "full fledged member" in eight or ten years at earliest. Signing the treaty, you became "only" a freshman. You must learn everything, from "consensus building" to forming informal coalition. The author of this article, Deputy of the Czech Permanent Representative to NATO, summarizes the history of fulfilling the membership's prerequisites and following difficult process of implementation of fundamentals and requirements, e.g. the so-called NATO legal acquis (Status of Forces Agreement), Planning and Review Process, setting Force Goals, fixing Identification Friend or Foe on Mi-21 aircraft assigned for Air Policing, problems with developing home infrastructure for Host Nation Support. We joined common security planning, took part in NATO Security Investment Programme and Conference of National Armaments Directors. But today's organization is quite different that used to be, the role and missions have changed. We must be prepared to meet them too.

The basic question of Army transformation was the fact that it was not constituted upon the statehood principle that gives precedence to politicking individual parties. The ultimate goal of this transformation was to build forces loyal to democratic republic, but during the last ten years the top personnel at the Ministry of Defence changed several times, leaving the Army with restricted means, without precise laid down tasks and goals. Uncontrolled interventions into forces structure, reducing numbers of military personnel, lead to balance on the verge of collapse. The basic goal to develop Czech national security and defence policies did not fell short. Army was transforming itself, initially under the management of former generals and later under civilian control, especially after 1991. The division of the armed forces after the split-up of the state at the turn of 1992 went very smoothly, with good discipline. The transformation has been influenced above all by the newly adopted legislation, accession to NATO and to the European Union, participation in missions abroad and professionalization of the Czech armed forces. The whole process has been facilitated by the acceptance and implementation of a broader concept of security.

The article is focused on the Czech military bases during mission abroad and introduces new term "Life Cycle of Military Base". Every system has its own successive stages through which it passes; concept that compares the cyclical nature of organizations, systems, is called life cycle. The Reach-Back concept divides lifetime of the military base into seven phases: Assignment (task, goals), Preparation, Proposal (draft), Designing, Building, Running and Cancelling. The definition and description of all phases of the Life Cycle of Military Bases is an important contribution to solving series of problems connected with designing, building, running and cancelling of military bases during mission abroad. Dividing into separate sections contributes to the well-mastered supervision of base, as it indicates factual structures of individual stages of daily routine of the base and thus it lowers the risks of neglecting some activities.

The important part of the forces transformation deals with the problem reducing in numbers of officers, namely field officers and general corps in the Czechoslovak Armed Forces and lately the Army of the Czech Republic. The main cause of this reduction was new concept of military career, as before the transformation it used to be a lifelong profession. The downsizing started in 1990 and it ought to have been finished by the end of the first period of the Czech Armed Forces Reform, as of 2008/12/31/, but it appears that downsizing is endless. The author quotes figures concerning numbers of officers; several rank charts and tablets with corresponding NATO and Czech grades respectively are used to demonstrate veracity of his statements. According to Lt.Col. Pernica, the downsizing is going to continue but no one knows how many officers for the all-volunteer Czech armed forces will be enough.

The author discusses the issues surrounding the construction of modern logistic support for the Czech Army as it transforms from a conscript to an all professional force of agile, light forces, with high reliability and low support requirements. The basic philosophy is to create comprehensive system that would offer complex service for a commander in the field of materiel, technology and medical services. The logistics reform must be supported by enhancing communication systems (Information Logistics System) and by seeking the ways of rationale savings, to reach the highest level of compatibility with logistics systems of other NATO nations. "Time Based Competition" and "Time Compression" must be accepted at all levels of logistics system both in peace and field conditions. In the future, the security problems will be managed more by civilian means than by hard force. The goals will be political, economical and cultural. Those changing threats will ask logistic support to be more flexible, mobile, integrated, compact and precise.

The author discusses the issues surrounding the construction of modern logistic support for the Czech Army as it transforms from a conscript to an all professional force of agile, light forces, with high reliability and low support requirements. The basic philosophy is to create comprehensive system that would offer complex service for a commander in the field of materiel, technology and medical services. The logistics reform must be supported by enhancing communication systems (Information Logistics System) and by seeking the ways of rationale savings, to reach the highest level of compatibility with logistics systems of other NATO nations. "Time Based Competition" and "Time Compression" must be accepted at all levels of logistics system both in peace and field conditions. In the future, the security problems will be managed more by civilian means than by hard force. The goals will be political, economical and cultural. Those changing threats will ask logistic support to be more flexible, mobile, integrated, compact and precise.

After forming Czechoslovak military units abroad he served in Egypt, where he was engaged in the battle of Tobruk, a lengthy confrontation between Axis and Allied forces in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. He went through higher training in Scotland, after the Allied invasion of Normandy he took part in the siege of Dunkerque harbour where 12,000 German soldiers of Wehrmacht were concentrated. In 1945, in the rank of Staff Captain, he became career soldier in military judicial service. After communist coup d'etat he was suspended, stripped of honours, degraded from the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to the rank of retired Private. The Velvet Revolution brought him rehabilitation, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel. Among others, in 2005 he was awarded the French Legion of Honour.

It is evident that Barack Obama diverges from Bush's pre-emptive strategy. There are changes in style and contents. Obama begins to direct American policy more towards diplomatic negotiations instead underlining military strength. It is evident namely in proposed negotiations with Iran and in case of Russia, where he wants to overcome cooling down after Russia-Georgia clashes and gas crisis. He insists on avoiding unnecessary conflicts and puts stress on good relations with allies and building new partnerships. He is going to withdraw soldiers from Iraq and in spite of problems in Afghanistan to reduce U.S. military budget. Even though Obama wants to maintain American world's leadership, there are some signs of partial changes in American foreign policy, e.g. his orientation towards Asia suggests first signs of multilateral approach of post-American era. The author also mentions the question of "American radar" in the Czech Republic, the fate of which depends on Iran's nuclear power programme.

Africa has became synonymous with conflict, increasingly violent and protracted. The continent is facing huge difficulties today and the EU is more and more involved in peace enforcement and expeditionary operations. Therefore the purpose of this article is to inform and pass knowledge of operational environment to those Czech soldiers designated to deploy overseas and abroad. It covers topics such as operational areas, understanding EU Battle Group operational Environment and Africa's operational environment. It is necessary for Czech soldiers to understand African operational environment very quickly and profoundly to avoid unfortunate misunderstanding of the local culture, customs, believes, religions, regional official and customary laws. It is a new challenge for the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic to be prepared for the CZE/SVK Battle Group. All information and data for this paper were drawn from unclassified sources.

The article points out the altered role of intelligence and counterintelligence under the conditions of new security threats and relevant problems of intelligence analysis. Authors compare the theories of the orthodox and revisionist intelligence schools dealing with the detection of surprise attacks and finally outlines solutions related to the training of intelligence analytics. Orthodox views are as follows: surprising attacks are inevitable, such attacks will succeed as they are unpredictable, complex and sophisticated; reformists say that too much attention is paid to various failures, there are many cases in which intelligence prevention was successful. Threat analyses are very complicated; hints are not clear, ambiguous. New threats must be examined and eliminated with cooperation with other force branches, police, integrated rescue system, and others. Last but not least, there is indispensable role of preparation and schooling of intelligence officers.

As a former Austrian officer he was chosen for recruiting volunteers for the so-called Czech and Slovak Army in Russia. After the WWI he became a member of the newly created Czechoslovak Army. During Nazi occupation of Czech lands, he was arrested for his resistance activities. Fortunately, in prison he suffered from typhoid fever, so he was taken into hospital and therefore he was not executed. When WW II ended, he was falsely accused of leaking important information by military counter-intelligence which was firmly in hands of oncoming communists. After interrogations he was senteced for "active fight against the Bolsheviks" in Russian civil war. The Soviet security authorities deported him together with other condemned persons to Austrinan city Baden and then to the U.S.S.R. At the age of 60 he was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. In 1954 he died. After the Velver Revolution he was rehablitaded and promoted to the rank of Major General.

Many people in the world lead intolerably insecure lives. In many cases insecurity is the consequence of armed conflicts in which civilians are deliberately targeted, sometimes, their insecurity has natural causes, like earthquakes, hurricane, tsunami or disease, they suffer from famine. Security is a broader term, covering not only military threats. Human rather than nation-state security should be at the heart of European policy. Instead of defeating enemies or pacifying warring parties, EU missions should focus on protecting civilians, through law enforcement with the occasional use of force. EU member states ought to support a new framework for the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The following seven principles are underlined: (i) the primacy of Human Rights, (ii) clear political authority, (iii) multilateralism, (iv) a bottom-approach, (v) regional focus; (vi) the use of legal instruments, (vii) the appropriate use of force. In fact, underlines Mr. Karaffa, humane security concept forms the very base of common European culture and identity.

It is a point at which attacking forces are unable to continue their attack or even defend themselves, because do casualties, shortages of fuel, ammunition and rations, and sheer physical exhaustion. This sequel article deals with the theory of the operational art focusing on the culminating point operational concept. The article emanates from Carl von Clausewitz's ideas and concepts described in his book "On War", doctrinal publications analysis and study projects of the operational art theorists. It treats conditions influencing achievement of the culminating point on single levels of war-strategic, operational and tactical and highlights coherences and factors having fundamental influences on culmination. The article is accompanied by several graphs describing this theory in detail. Key words: Culmination, Culminating Point, Zeroing, Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace, Campaign Planning and Developing Operations.

Like hundreds of millions of other people, Islamic terrorists and their supporters use the Internet. In many ways, the Internet is a tool tailor-made for these Islamic extremists, who use it covertly and overtly to plan attacks, raise money, and spread anti-Semitic and anti-American propaganda written in English, Arabic, and other languages. There is sufficient information to believe that in the future, terrorists may even turn the Internet itself into a weapon, using it to wreak havoc on America's critical infrastructure. Because these militants are global, rather than being located in a single geographical area (Pakistan, Indonesia, Somalia, Iraq), the Internet provides them with a new and effective way to attain their goals. It may be difficult to catch extremists planning or coordinating an attack if they are using encryption, steganography, or some other method of hiding their online activities.

Abolishing military courts at the end of 1993 could evoke the idea that there is no such thing as military judicature in our country. In fact, the Defence Act sets that in time of military preparedness, higher and lower field tribunals and courts come into existence. But present legal norms do not know the legal term "state of military preparedness", only "mobilization". There are many other legal gaps, concerning e.g. declaration war, defining state of war, proclaiming martial law. There are not firmly set statutes of field military courts, their subordination, dependence of field judges and their assistants, or how shall we handle offences of our soldiers abroad, its connections with international laws and agreements. This state of affairs for quick remedy.

It is generally known that norms of international humanitarian law are applicable for the protection of selected groups during interstate or domestic conflicts, but this paper is devoted to the chronological scope of application of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols even in time of peace. The author demonstrates that the Article 3 of the Additional Protocol I implies the peacetime applicability of certain provisions of the Conventions and Additional Protocols. Examples of such provisions of the Additional Protocol I are also brought in this article. Among others, he extents the notion of humanitarian law in peace, which is very often limited only to preparation of personnel and schooling.