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The paper is focused on the area of defence sources in the Czech Republic. Within an analysis of the actual situation in military spending in the Czech Republic, some potential approaches are defined to enable the reasonable and transparent allocation of resources for national defence. Based on these approaches, three courses of action are derived in order to deal with current resources inadequacy and instability in defence.

The article is available only in the Czech language. For more information please contact editors.

Russia's actions in the Ukraine have changed the security situation in the Baltic region, which makes NATO's long-term presence in Latvia essential for the Latvian Republic. The impacts of Russian actions on Latvian defence policy are discussed in the paper by Mr Janis Berzinš,Managing Director of the Centre for Security and Defence Research, National Defence Academy of Latvia, in Policy Paper, No. 2, 2014. It is a new way of intervention, new-generation warfare, without the employment of armed combats, using mostly influence and coercion, by means of covert operations. Abridged and adapted. The original English text is available at http://www.naa.mil.lv/~/media/NAA/AZPC/Publikacijas/PP%2002-2014.ashx. Even though the study came into being in April 2014, the editors regard it worthy to be published, being timeless and with general validity.

The First World War was a global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. From the time of its occurrence until the approach of World War II, it was called simply the World War or the Great War. In America, it was initially called the European War. The immediate trigger for war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. This set off a diplomatic crisis. Within weeks, Europe was at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, paving the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved.

On the one hand, Russia is among the countries which often criticize the Western-led military intervention. On the other hand, in the last twenty years, Russia has repeatedly approved using military force by the West against an individual state, endorsed by the United National Security Council. The main purpose of this article is therefore to describe and analyse Russian position towards four Western military interventions 1999-2011. Specifically, the article is focused on two military interventions without UN Security Council mandates (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999 and Iraq in 2003), the intervention with the expanded UN Security Council resolution (Afghanistan 2001) and the military intervention that was partially approved by the UN Security Council resolutions (Libya 2011).

Článek je shrnutím výsledků řešení projektu obranného výzkumu STRUKTURA: Tvorba modulárních struktur úkolových uskupení pro celé spektrum operací a jejich ověřování s využitím tvorby koncepcí a experimentování - CD&E. Je zaměřen na objasnění problematiky definování modulů jako základního prvku modularity a možné přístupy k výběru hodnocení a formování modulárních úkolových uskupení. Cílem článku je pojednat o možnostech tvorby úkolových uskupení a generování sil v podmínkách definovaných a popsaných scénářů. Hlavní části článku vymezují determinanty organizace modulárních struktur a jejich popis.

Our new stance to comprehensive control of security in the international context is based upon the so-called "wider security concept". Despite various definitions,there is the consensus that a national state is not the only security subject, the classical paradigm was extended to other areas, outside military one: political, economy, financial, banking, environmental, and social. They are endorsed by security problems related to technology, energy, raw material sources, ethnical disputes, religion, together with humane rights and cultural aspects. To win the war is easy, to establish peace is difficult. Last but not least, we now have to fight and win the war of public opinion.

This review attempts to analyze in detail the specific roles and interests of the key players represented by Pakistan and India in Afghanistan. The focus of individual actors in the South Asian region was focused on identifying key objectives, defining specific national interests and strategies in Afghanistan. The aim of the article is to find out, analyze, interpret and understand information about the power relations of Pakistan and India in relation to the security situation in Afghanistan. The content focuses on the analysis of Pakistan-India relations and their intertwining in Afghan society. The aim is not to relate the content to a generalized theory or known theoretical paradigm of international relations, but to analyze the aspects of the Afghanistan in relation to Pakistan and India.

The work deals with the issue of engineer information, which is necessary for the planning of water crossing, and which can facilitate and speed up the proces of operation planning with the assistance of the staff members of engineer specialization. At present (2019) there is no application software development of engineer support tasks (hereinafter APV ŽEN) within the engineer command and control subsystem AČR, which would take into account the problem of water crossing by troops. The aim of the article is: to analyze the gathering of engineer information for water crossing and to describe it on a specific example of the Morava river, to identify the possibilities of water crossing by forces of AČR, to propose a map base for APV ŽEN, which will be supplemented by engineer information from Povodí s.p. and Motorway and Highway Directorate (hereinafter ŘSD) and to define measures that will support the availability of engineer information in water crossing.

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 article deals with the applicability of professional soldiers in the labour market after the termination of military service. Its aim is to outline the information about the unemployment of former soldiers and to present the main results of sociological research, which was held among 313 former members of the Czech Armed Forces. Based on the processing of statistics of the Labour Office of the Czech Republic, it was found out that on average 18% of former soldiers of productive age were 8 months without employment during 2008 - 2017. With the help of a questionnaire survey, it was found out that more than a fifth of the respondents were looking for an employment in the civilian sector for more than half a year. The majority of respondents do not perceive the system of preparation for a second career of soldiers as elaborate. They state that the issue of second career was not addressed during their military service. There are possible recommendations for improving the current state of integration of soldiers into the labour market at the end of the article.

The article provides partial results of the research Strategic Analysis Methods applicable within the Defence Department of the Czech Republic. This research addresses a low level of use of strategic analysis methods in the development of strategic and conceptual documents of the department. In the years 2017 and 2018, interviews with the processors of these documents were carried out and the problems related to the use of strategic analysis methods in sector planning were analysed. In particular, the article analyses the content and utilization process of stakeholder analysis method, SWOT analysis, future scenarios, benchmarking and GAP analysis.

The author presents the results of the research in the field of defining the competencies for military professionals in command and control in military operations. The main purpose of the article is to familiarize the readers with the proposal of the recommendations for implementing an integrated approach to defining the competencies needed for military personnel within the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic. On the basis of the analysis of the national strategic documents, analysis of the system of management of educational and training activities and evaluation of the current competency model for the members of the Czech Armed Forces, the recommendations were drawn up to introduce a conceptual approach to defining the competencies for military personnel. This set of proposed measures provides a baseline for applying the competency model as a human resource management tool.

Structured analysis is a systematic approach to solving intelligence analytic problems. Methodology and analytical techniques in the intelligence analysis include the selection of structured techniques from the point of view of the analytical task and the use of the analytical spectrum. Basic structured analytical techniques ensure transparency and reduce personality bias. Taxonomy is the basis for quality analysis. There are 55 types of techniques that complement expert judgment and intuition. A properly structured analysis contains twelve questions supplemented by a number of analytical techniques. The method of analytical spectrum in strategy leads to the split of the process into the phase of analysis, synthesis, selection of information and argumentation, and the analysis itself consists of four sub-stages. The basic parameters that negatively affect the use of structured analytical techniques by intelligence analysts are the analytical and collective approach, the patterns and the level of education.

The article deals with the evaluation of the state of oil security in the Czech Republic and measures, which should be taken to increase it. The attention is payed to the importance of the crude oil in the energy mix of the Czech Republic, its oil dependency and international cooperation in the area of oil security. Further, it focuses on the emergency stocks of the crude oil and petroleum products and to their use and to the oil demand restraint measures.

Since the 1st release of an internal ministerial norm guiding planning processes of activities and development within the Czech Ministry of Defence (MOD) presuming existence of Capability Planning Methodology, this document has not been established. This article offers selected theoretical starting points and, on their basis, it outlines possible a ministerial process tree focused on the capability process as a ground for its definition within Czech MOD conditions. Further in a framework of an added value model proposes possible internal structure of above mentioned process down to sub-processes level with justification of their purpose and mutual links. Formulating mentioned attributes of the capability planning process this article makes a contribution to set up this process within the Czech MOD.

The authors present the results of the research on the Lessons Learned process applied within the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. The main purpose of the article is to introduce the proposal of the process optimization to readers. The paper describes the process in detail, and this description is used to identify procedural shortcomings exploiting the process analysis method in terms of factual and logical accuracy of the process. The following part of the article presents the results of the comparative analysis of the chosen Lessons Learned processes. The result of the comparative analysis allows authors to make in an innovative way suitable recommendations for optimizing the current state of the whole process of Lessons Learned. Based on the analysis of the educational programs, the paper proposes to include the subject of the Lessons Learned process into the learning outcomes, especially from the perspective of competency based approach to education.

The paper deals with cyber security, cyber defence and operations in cyber space. It follows earlier performed analysis of cyber defence tasks and proposes distribution of competencies among key players. The required capabilities are derived from tasks determined by legislation, NATO and EU commitments and earlier developed strategic and operational scenarios. Comparing required capabilities and an actual state, a solution harmonizing defence in cyber space with defence of the Czech Republic and ensuring the cyber space defence and integration cyber capabilities into common operations conducting is proposed.

This article focuses on answering the question to what extent did the German foreign and security policy change, based on the ISAF mission in Afghanistan, especially when it comes to military deployment abroad. The author identifies and analyses the consequences associated with the German experience in Afghanistan and their influence on the current and future deployment of German armed forces abroad. The attention is given to the German strategic culture of "civilian power" and the question, if Germany still fulfills the attributes connected with this theoretical concept. The author verifies this assumption by means of the role theory concept, which helps to understand the behavior of Germany on the international level.

NATO Defence Planning Process (NDPP) is a subject of quite frequent reviews and amendments in order to meet the needs of NATO as an organization and of each Ally. The current initiative, based on a tasking from the Chicago summit in May 2012, is referred to as "Enhancing the NDPP". It particularly aims at making the NDPP more relevant to national defence planning and more visible at political level. More emphasis is also placed on timely consultations among Allies whenever they intend to make significant changes in their defence inventories and capabilities. Recently approved NATO Defence Planning Capability Targets (June 2013) previously known as Force Goals, are for the first time affected by application of the so-called "50% planning assumption" which aims to redress the burden-sharing imbalance between the US and other Allies.

The study deals with pacifism in programmes of church denominations and societies acting legally in the Czech Republic and its supposed influence for manning Czech forces by retired ex-servicemen in times of war. During the state of emergency, war danger or even a war, the armed forces will be replenished by retired servicemen that under actual Defence Act are obliged to rejoin the forces. Today, all men, citizens have a legal right to refuse to serve in army. We have an official list of 32 church denominations; all of them have a special policy towards war, defence, and military service. The author asked denominations to reply several questions concerning their attitudes to country defence and military service. Their answers and evaluations present the contents of this article.

The article deals with the problem of a certain militarization of a society, supposing country's military establishment is expanding its scope of activities to government or economy. From this point of view, the military and their civilian counterparts could be seen as "imperium in imperio" and such a model of military as a state within a state. There are a military-governmental complex and a military-industrial one in each state and both ought to be under civilian authorities' control, in order to prevent the democratic state from being fallen under influence of this complex. Although the notion was sketched more than fifty years ago, the military-industrial complex theory has been still living, and author gives some examples of the evolution of military-governmental and military-industrial complex.

During the Arab Spring Revolution, when the protests against the Syrian government began in 2011, Russia was one of the strongest backers of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, backing its right to use force if necessary to prevent or put down an uprising. Currently, the Russian Federation is the power which has most prominently provided a diplomaticshieldforthe Syrian state and bolstered it witharms supplies, although Moscow talks about the need to "balance" between the warring parties in Syria. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the motives of the foreign and security policy of the Russian Federation in support of Syrian President BasharAssad in the background of Russian interests and influence of norms. At the theoretical level, the paper builds upon a combination of conventional constructivism and rationalism approaches, which in relation to the motives of Russian protection and defense of the ruling regime in Syria reflects a number of fundamental knowledge.

Changing security environment and the need to address conventional and especially asymmetric threats and risks, wherever they occur, establish clear requirements on the development of national capabilities. Armed forces are required to be fully deployable and sustainable in operations in austere conditions for an extended period of time. In NATO-led operations currently participate many nations of different sizes, force structures, equipment, training and capabilities. The only way to reach operational goals while achieving economies of scale is a mutual cooperation of all involved participants. Basic key prerequisite for such cooperation is interoperability.

The article deals with contemporary security situation in the Sinai Peninsula. Attention is paid to certain aspects that form the local negative trends in security developments and their mutual interconnection, as a part of social movements after the events of the so-called Arab Spring and the consequences of the Egyptian Lotus Revolution that have a cardinal influence for both the deployments of Egyptian Army and the security sector in this territory. The opening part of this article is a brief historical excursion into the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel that arranges the special status of the Sinai as a demilitarized area and the adjustment of social-economic reality of the Bedouin population performing decisive influence for described situation.

Shortly after the Czech government gave its approval with conclusions and goals of White Paper on Defence, the Defence Ministry and the General Staff began to fulfil assigned objectives. The body that did not keep its word was the Czech government. Defence budget was reduced and military officials had to look for further emergency solutions. The author thinks that we are in a point when it is necessary to open a wide debate over the responsibility for country defence, the state of armed forces, defence capabilities. He concludes that this Military Review should be the best place to start with.

There exists a variety of deployment strategies, visions and concepts for armed forces, how they will operate in the future horizon. The key part of operational concepts consists of several key characteristics, which include e.g. the account of military problem, its military solution describing in broad terms how military forces will operate across the wide range of military operations in pursuit of strategic objectives and thereby consequent requirements for military capabilities development. The article does not provide a comprehensive answer to all the problems associated with the concept development. Rather, its purpose is to point out some aforementioned aspects crucial not only for operational concepts developers, responsible individuals and organizations, but it may be beneficial even for commanders in terms of their operational thinking and drafting an appropriate operational approach to solving day-to-day acitivities.

One of most discussed themes in this field is also a critique of unfinished, non-stable structure of master documents, e.g. Security Strategy of the Czech Republic. They are often told to be obsolete. The latest document, the White Paper on Defence, Critical responses are not quite justified. There are a lot of good ideas, innovations. Many things have been done, many set tasks have been met at the level of Defence Ministry. Positive effects of results reached are obvious. They are summarized in the White Paper mentioned above. The only danger lies in arbitrary decisions by political management, including employing variable means of their implementation, wanton interpretation of leading defence principles, low respect to approved strategical decisions. We must name mentioned handicaps as a first step towards the real and true remedy.

This article deals with PMSCs as a relatively new phenomenon in warfare areas. It is open to discussion whether private military companies and the private contractors that they employ, should be treated just like any other transnational industry, or whether they should be treated like mercenaries under international law. As it happened in many countries, private companies and private contractors operate in a legal vacuum. From a strictly legal point of view individuals employed by private military companies are not to be considered as mercenaries. The private military industry offers a wide range of services. Procurement of military services by individuals and private firms has developed in a direction that had probably not been anticipated in previous years. Some military analysts say that the exclusive role of the state in the domain of defence and security is outdated and should be re-examined.