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Since 2008 national security institutions such as police, fi re brigades or armed forces have been confronted with the lack of manpower. There is impending risk of decreasing in population between 15-24 years, and as those key executive institutions are based upon employees' principle, this fact might disenable each national security institution, supposing this risk would be underestimated. Recruiting campaigns are not sufficient enough. In the near future, this is probably going to infl uence so far strict criteria for recruiting military personnel. According to the author, demographic ageing thus represents one of risks, but up to now the offi cial documents by Czech MoD have not reflected this situation.

This article deals with the Czech defence industry and its role in the defense policy of the Czech Republic. The basic goal of the text is a short introduction to abilities of the Czech defence industry and answering the question if and how it is able to fulfil the demand of the Czech defence sector for an armament and a military gear. Basic items needed for a military capability of soldiers on a field and the ability to develop and produce them at the Czech territory is mainly examined.

The article deals with persistent problems of Czech military policy within 1993-2009, its achievements and failures. A new managerial concept, system planning, programming and budgeting, which superseded a communist central control, was not implemented fully because of governance instability. The office of Defence Minister was held by 11 persons within 1993-2009 (Czech Republic). Among others, it aroused the return of a concept of central planning in 2004, which was not successful, because it was not supported by institutions outside the MoD. The authors propose more transparency in military matters and better cooperation with academic community to prevent the repetition of concepts supporting short-term goals instead of long-term visions.

Human capital refers to the stock of skills and knowledge embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value. The article deals with a practical application of this theory into armed forces. The core of its application is wage motivation of a soldier to leave military service if his/her salary is not increasing. The problem is explained by comparison between the age structure of UK Army and Czech Armed Forces. The age structure of UK Army is shaped by the career scheme selecting majority of soldiers out of service before their age of 40. By way of this selection, labour cost is automatically optimised. It is a proof of impact of human capital theory on armed forces that is usually ignored in Czech Forces. The author hopes that poor economic situation in our country ironically helps to optimise Czech army structure.

The theme of this study is a prognostic reply to the anticipated rise of mentioned two Asian powers from the point of international relations. Their growing power will precipitate consecutive results-the end of American leading role and coming multiple world. Will it produce world's stability or security threats? The author presents several scenarios. All take note of 9/11 attacks and a possible crash of two form of capitalism, democratic in the West and authoritarian in China and Russia. India has a special position. The economic success of those systems is a great chance for humane rights and civil liberties. World's dominance will be divided among the U.S., China, partly the EU, with strong position of regional powers, India, Japan, Indonesia, Iran, South African Union, Egypt, Brazil, Mexico and others. Russia will lose his superpower position, its internal economic and ethnical problems make it weak, and therefore Russia will attempt to form military coalition with China, which will lead to new world's bipolarity.

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.

After the year 1990 a total of 120 wars have taken place. The most appealing were those initiated by the USA, in which other friendly states´ve participated as well. No country has the right to invade its neighbour or over-run and annex another. There were many discussions in the world over the legacy of imposed interventions, under which conditions they are true and just. The study covers two dissimilar attitudes: the first one against Hussein's expansionist policy in 1991 and warfare after 9/11 2001. The legitimacy rests upon Resolutions of the United Nations Security Council that allow any nation to remove the aggressor by force. The author also mentions a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1995, and then again from 1998 until 1999/2001.

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.

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.

On January 11, 2013, the French army opened the military operation with the aim to halt the progress of Islamist armed groups, controlling north of Mali. The factual impulses for intervention were endangered pipelines in Algeria, Madgaz, MEG, Trans Mediterranean, and Greenstream. Generally, the intervention was justified by several UN Security Council Resolutions. Even the military units of the Army of the Czech Republic have taken part in the Operation, backed by Resolution 2071, and at the request of Mali government. The author familiarizes readers with roots of instability in this region and actual security state of affairs. Finally he presents several scenarios of subsequent possible developments.

Despite the attempts of labeling hybrid warfare as a new form of warfare or even as a factor that is changing the nature of war, hybrid warfare is part of a war from the Antiquity to the present day. The essence of hybrid warfare is in parallel use of regular and irregular military forcesand different means of pressure by a power unwilling to openly attack a weaker opponent. Information dimension is analyzed in the cases of hybrid warfare against Croatia (1990-91) and Ukraine (2014). In both cases the key target of hybrid warfare was social cohesion of the attacked countries. In the Croatian case, despite a strong propaganda campaign followed by the direct and indirect use of military force, the attacking side was unable to break social cohesion of the majority of Croatia's population. In the Ukrainian case, the lack of social cohesion has prevented organization of the efficient response to hybrid warfare waged by the Russian Federation. Both cases also indicate the significance of national identity in preserving a society's social cohesion.

There is currently about 1 500 Moroccan citizens fighting for the so-called Daech in Syria and Iraq; that makes the North African monarchy one of the main countries which export radical islam djihadists and supporters abroad to the war-beaten Syrian-Iraqi region. Until 2014 Moroccan officials let them leave the country almost freely, to be precise, they didn´t prevent them from travelling to Syria, Iraq and other proxy war destinations. That´s how have the Moroccan fighters joined the Daech rows fighting in the beginning against the Syrian president Asad. But it seems now that the situation has rapidly changed: the Kingdom of Morocco is currently fighting and closely monitoring its own foreign fighters who are coming back home. Especially such eventual threat is pushing the country for creating a new national security strategy related to this risky minority, which needs to be integrated back to the Moroccan society.

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.

Light Infantry units are primarily equipped with the Iveco light armored vehicles in the Army of the Czech Republic. Similar type of vehicles was acquired by the armies of some other NATO members. Armored LMVs represent a new category of equipment and no specific tactical procedures have yet been created. The aim of the text was to develop general tactical light infantry procedures for the current training needs of units with Iveco LMVs. In the text, combat battle drills on vehicles and tactical procedures for the use of light units equipped with the LMV Iveco have been created. Combat deployment experience and results of live simulation were main source of information for development of LMV tactics and procedures. Presented procedures can be used for training of units equipped with LMV Iveco. The use of light armored vehicles also showed the design limits of this technique. LMVs Iveco cannot fulfill the role of primary vehicle of light infantry units on a conventional battlefield mainly due to their low level of endurance.

This text focuses on process of armament policy of the Armed Forces of Georgia and how it was influenced by country's effort to join NATO. Authors argue that Georgia's proclaimed pro-western ambitions should have also been reflected in the process of materiel procurement. Authors investigate the time period from 2003 to 2008 when growing military expenditures reached it's top. Text shows that only few major acquisitions in that period were focused on western military equipment and that Georgia's military acquisitions did not reflect countrys inclination towards west and NATO.

The article deals with the use and future prospects of the international cooperation for the development some of Czech Armed Forces capabilities in the field of military medicine. It has no ambition to address this issue in its entirety, but only contains an analysis of some of the current formats and initiatives of international cooperation in the field of military medicine, with the justification of their origins and a brief evaluation of their contribution. Part of the article is also a proposal for possible measures to improve the development of medical capabilities in the framework of international cooperation.

The article focuses on confronting the Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah with Israel in the field of energy. The aim of the article is to analyse the importance of energy in strategy of movement Hezbollah generally and specifically in confronting with Israel and motives and methods of the energy strategy of the Hezbollah. The primary method of Hezbollah action is to use or threat of violence consisting in threatening to attack on the Israeli energy sector to defend Lebanese energy wealth and deter its enemy from production of gas and oil in the disputed waters of the eastern Mediterranean. The main motive of Hezbollah's activities is especially strengthening of stable energy supplies and Israel's accusations of aggressive energy policy towards Lebanon.

The establishment of the Permanent Structured Co-operation (PESCO) in defence in 2017 is one of the most important European initiatives of recent years, aiming at enhancing effectiveness in addressing security challenges and advancing towards further integrating defence cooperation within the EU framework. The article describes the genesis of PESCO and explains its functioning, including its legal framework, objectives, the role of the main actors and the dynamics of the whole process. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the scope and strength of the more binding commitments that the participating Member States have decided to fulfil in the name of strengthening Europe's defence under the umbrella of the Common Security and Defence Policy.

This article analyzes strategic engagement of the Russian Federation and the United States of America in the South Caucasus in four phases of development from the end of the Cold War until present day. The first phase covers early nineties, the second is from mid-nineties to 2003, the third from 2004 to 2008 and the fourth from 2009 to 2016/2017. There are three key trends during the examined period. First, Russia has permanent strategic interests in the South Caucasus due to maintaining its own state security and securing the position of the most prominent external actor in the region. Second, Russia's weakness and active engagement of the US/NATO are barriers to realizing Russia's state interests. Third, the South Caucasus is strategically more significant to Russia than the US/NATO.

On the introduction, the article focuses on clarifying the place and role of counterinsurgency in current military operations. It also deals with the principles of counterinsurgency and their doctrinal comparison within some advanced armies and the NATO. The aim is to highlight some findings related to principles that should be changed,added in doctrine and incorporated into the training of the ACR troops. The result of the analysis and comparison of individual principles with own experience of the author from the mission in Afghanistan are recommendations given for the troop training in the theatre. The implementation of the proposed measures in preparation of the Czech Army units may improve the effectivenessof counterinsurgency in military operations.

The security environment is permanently changing. A national set of risks has increased after joining the EU and NATO and EU enlargement. The Czech Republic is obligated to integrate national security capabilities into NATO and the EU. To fulfil its responsibility, the Czech Republic ought to use the capabilities-based planning for further transformation of national security sector. This NATO concept ought to be in use not only within the MoD, but also at other ministries tied or responsible for national security. The national security sector must be planed, programmed, budgeted and transformed like a body. The article deals with the problem of unifying security concepts across Czech public administration. The author points out that our operational capabilities are influenced among others by the lack of labour force at the Czech national labour market.

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 paper deals with the principle of legality during putting in practice of Military police support to allied armed forces in the Host nation Support operation on the Czech Republic territory. Security of sending nation armed forces weaknesses have been identified on the base of analysis of the issue current state supplemented by the legal framework assessment. Suggestions, for expert discussion of Military police authority change, are in the last chapter.

Management by objectives works very well only if there is a rating and evaluation system of objectives. To form such organization one is not easy, especially when using aggregate objectives, combining many partial objectives of various levels. This article deals with the problem how to rate and evaluate this kind of aggregate objectives. The problem is explained in the enlistment goal 2008 of the Czech Armed Forces, which sets the number of volunteers joining the Czech Armed Forces in 2008. The key role here is played by the suitable gauges steering a level (percentage) reached. Thus, recruiting reflects manning the Czech forces by professional personnel in a given period (calendar year). The author proposes to run recruitment for military schools separate from enlistment for the army, i.e. to conceive this recruitment only as a practical goal.

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 deals with the topic of scenarios in relation to their significance, internal structure development and the way of elaborating scenarios following links to security threats and mission types. Article describes possible way of structuring set of scenarios reflecting security threats stated in The Security strategy of the Czech Republic and corresponding mission types. Main methodology exploited during the work with the topic of scenarios was document analysis, which resulted in finding, that scenarios don't enjoy appropriate attention in the defence resort of the Czech Republic, scenarios are not elaborated and thus not exploited. The article deals in the conclusion with propositions aiming at elaborating scenarios with purposefull internal structure, elaborating security threats and reflecting mission types.

This study is based on a paper presented at the conference with the same heading taking place on January 8, 2009. First, the authors enumerate starting points of Czech defence and security polity together with key factors influencing their developments. The whole scale of new threats-from WMD and ballistic proliferation to cyber attack and even non intentional threats like climate change and pandemia-are to be addressed not only in NATO but also in the EU. Existing states of affairs are gradually reflected by Czech security and defence documents: Security Strategy 1999, 2001, 2003; Military Strategy 1999, 2002, 2004, 2008. In this historical context we joined NATO defence alliance and took part in peacekeeping missions abroad. Previous twenty years when we lived in peace could be regarded as a challenge to build Czech statehood. There is no time like a present. Only the future will show us whether we mastered it as much as we could.