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The purpose of this article is to inform on elements of military deception in NATO armies and overarching principles that make military deception successful. Deception Planning is an iterative process that should be considered as an inextricable part of the operational planning. The knowledge in the field of military deception in the Czech military is low; no operational deception plan has been prepared for foreign operations or any military exercise. Deception is widely appreciated as a powerful instrument of military operations, yet it is surprisingly neglected by both the Czech Army and Military Educational System. The author tries to encourage officers and members of higher staffs to study this subject.

The Bucha massacre raises the question of whether the Russian army predisposes its soldiers to unlawful violence against civilians. This article assumes that regardless of superior orders, perpetrators of violence must overcome the psychological barriers developed during socialisation. The psychological mechanism of "moral disengagement" allows soldiers to kill in combat and act violently on civilians. The duty of the armed forces is not only to prepare soldiers to fight and kill but also to prevent illegal violence. The case of the Russian army demonstrates how formal activities to prevent moral disengagement and violations of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) face insurmountable obstacles in the form of institutional culture and insufficient human capital.

This article deals with objectives of EU BGs, required abilities and possible employment, namely from the legal point of view. Last but not least, there are mentioned relations between NATO and EU BG. Military capabilities of the EU are closely tied not only with the second pillar of the ?Maastricht Temple? (Common Foreign And Security Policy), but they are united with the activities of the EU as a whole (with all three pillars). The EU should have the potential to carry out independent military actions to solve international crises. The Battle Group is the smallest independent military unit (group) capable of being deployed in the area of operation. It is a combined arms grouping, the exact composition will vary according to the tactical requirement at the time. One of new BG?s tasks will be separation of parties by force. The ACR has earmarked the same units both for NATO and the EU led operations. This future deployment is specified in the current Czech Military Strategy and related documents. Now we are preparing the documents for building up common Czech and Slovak Battle Group (EU CZE/SVK BG).

This article discusses the transformation of the information environment, which allows an adversary to exploit cyber-enabled psychological and information operations. It presents the options currently available to an adversary to exploit the vulnerability of the information environment, chiefly the cognitive vulnerabilities of target groups. Thus, hostile interests are often pursued through manipulation, using disinformation, propaganda, algorithms and artificial intelligence. In the light of these developments, the article defines a society-centric approach, in which societal and human resilience are emphasised.

The paper argues that proxy war is an increasingly often used tool in the Middle East, in the already conflicted territories where international involvement is not only enabled, but also attracted and encouraged by the international law for the purpose of region's securitization. Thus, the paper's aim is to increase awareness on the fact that the Middle Eastern countries passing through civil war periods and accepting external actors to deal with their crises do not only become fertile territories for proxy wars, but the intervening actors start pursuing their own interests beyond the host country's interest in resolving the conflict.

A major challenge in defence planning is to establish a clear audit trail between security challenges, political ambitions and the recommended force structure. This paper describes a capability- and scenario-based methodology combined with a software toolset called JDARTS that gives long term defence planners a systematic approach to create links from high level security challenges to force structure recommendations. The security challenges are represented by mission types exemplified by scenarios which give concrete requirements. These requirements are represented by capabilities which are matched against the capabilities of force structure elements. The matching is a selection process where the outcome is the cheapest set of the force structure elements that fulfil the requirements. The JDARTS-software supports this method. Even though the future is uncertain, the defence planner's job is to help decision makers prioritize between economic constraints, national preparedness and international commitment.

The article deals with the interpretation of the term "armed forces" in the context of the current legal system of the Czech Republic. The authors propose to distinguish between the armed forces in the institutional concept and in the functional concept. The essence of the solution is the interpretation of Section 3(1) of the Armed Forces Act (No. 219/1999 Coll.) in the functional concept, i.e. in such a way that the armed forces are understood to include soldiers assigned to the Ministry of Defence, military schools, the Military Police and the Military Intelligence. Another solution could be to add a paragraph to the Armed Forces Act stating that "The provisions on members of the armed forces shall apply mutatis mutandis to soldiers on active service assigned to the Ministry of Defence, military schools, the Military Police and the Military Intelligence." The aim of the article is initiation professional discussions about the issue in question, as well as indications of directions as to how it would be appropriate to solve the matter.

Review of the Author's Monography PROCHÁZKA, Josef and Pavel NEČAS. Approaches to Security and Defence Strategy Formulation.

The conversion of military ranks poses an enormous difficulty due to great differences in hierarchical structures between different national armies. This article written by the Director of Defence Language Institute Vyškov will give a short overview of most common troubles. The problem here is that national armies mostly represent national cultures as well. Translations of titles of high-rank military personnel are not too complicated. More problematic is finding equivalents for less-known, more specific ranks or those of other national Armed Forces. NATO has agreed upon a common standard for their translation, the norm STANAG 2116, based on NATO codes representing levels of ranks according to their duties, responsibilities, and career requirements.

This thoroughly elaborated paper deals with the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF). Similar missions represent NATO's global interests in problems of word's security. Afghanistan is the very place where new warfare methods are tested, new ways of combat come into existence. After September 11, 2001, American administration declared the war to global terrorism - GWOT (Global War on Terror), the first theatre of GWOT became Afghanistan. From military point of view, it was unambiguous success, to a large degree, it succeeded even politically. But Afghanistan was negatively affected by the situation in Iraq. Afghanistan is far off being stabilized. Local warlords, tribal chiefs, called anti-coalition militants (ACMs), avoid regular warfare, they use raids, sabotages, acts of terror, provocations. Coalition units use e.g. PSYOP operations, as a way how to implement norms based deterrence.

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 article deals with the issue of application of the European Sectoral Qualifications Framework for Military Officer Profession. Paper brings the main results of levelling the Senior Officer Course to the European Core Curriculum for Military Officers (MILOF-CORE). It was found out that 18 out of 35 learning outcomes of the Senior Officer Course were found to considerable degree relevant to the MILOF-CORE, the rest contain a various degree of national specifics. Lessons learned gained from the levelling were employed in a recent revision of study programs of the career courses organized by the Center for Security and Military Strategic Studies of the University of Defence.

The article deals with the evaluation of military expenditures of European Union's four selected countries in the period of 2001-2008. Among examined countries belong the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia. The term military expenditures is used by many users, so the article defines first this term and also sources from which the authoress collected data for evaluation. The main source of statistical data about military expenditures is the Stockholm international institute, namely its research yearbooks.

Government expenditures allocated for defence are one of the categories comparable between countries to observe and analyse long-term trends. The paper compares the defence budgets of the USA and the Russian Federation between 2000 to 2019 with the aim to analyse potential causes of fluctuations in defence spending. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that military budgets are dependent on a combination of various factors such as current domestic policy, the economic cycle and global security and economic issues. The work uses significant as historical milestones to analyses their impacts on the dependent variable of military budget. As these, Operation Enduring Freedom (2001), Iraq war (2003), the inauguration of the US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the economic crisis (2007-2008), the Russian currency crisis (2014) and the Russian annexation of Crimea (2014) were identified.

This article studies the current stage of development of armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technology in Turkey, within the context of the current media attention caused by its deployment in various conflicts. Authors first provide a classification framework for surveillance and armed drones. Text proceeds with an overview of the technology and its military use. The core of the text focuses on Turkey's past and present use of armed drones. Authors analyse the current stage of Turkey's armed drone development production and export destinations. Furthermore, operational use by Turkey or other parties is discussed. Authors conclude by comparing current generation of Turkish drones to those deployed by the United States, highlighting technological edge on the side of the US, as well as continuing dependency of Turkey's main drone systems on foreign components.

The Polish armed forces (Wojsko Polskie) are continuously redeveloped. This article written by Brig. Szymonik, the head of Science and School Department at the Ministry of National Defence, deals with general aspects of this process. The problem concerns not only of the Polish military by itself, it covers even all Polish defence industries. After entering the Polish Republic into common world's market, Polish defence industries must adapt themselves into this competitive environment. It is being done with the use of several international agencies, WEAG (Western European Armaments Group), IPC (NATO Industrial Planning Committee), and EAA (European Armaments Agency). He is a supporter of higher military expenditures, as the necessary prerequisite for introducing modern technologies into both defence plants and Polish armed forces.

Backed by a heap of articles from the Western Press, author summarizes the recent conflict in the Caucasus. Georgia's position astride the western access route to the Caspian sea's energy reserves and Central Asia give it geopolitical significance. Moreover, Georgia represents exactly what Russia does not want to see on its borders: a country both independent and increasingly democratic. Russian government instead seeks submission, preferably by authoritarian rulers that it can manipulate. In summer 2008, Russia invaded South Ossetia, aimed at locking Georgia out of NATO. Moscow's military operation has far-reaching implications. To leaders in Ukraine and the Baltic states, it sends signals that it seeks to re-establish control in the former Soviet space. How should the West react? The author is a supporter of improving Russia's behaviour by mutual dialogues, negotiations. He sets an example: dispassionate, non-ideological talks between the former Soviet leader M. Gorbachev and an American president George Bush Sr.

In the shadow of the profound transformation of the security environment, the long rejected idea of a multi-speed Europe in defence is taking shape. What is the Czech Republic's stance in this context? Is it ready to adapt and make defence one of the government's priorities, or will it only passively observe the events around it and at some point tolerate another intervention or occupation of another power? The article outlines several practical recommendations to the Czech Republic in the area of military capabilities, armaments, defence research, defence industry and market, which could provide guidance in this process.

The global security environment brings forward different and surprising challenges for the armed forces, which require a good training and preparation. One way of sorting out the endeavour is using scenarios, the concept used extensively in the military field, the military field being the initiator of this concept. Military scenario development is the subject of this article, which is going to bring some essential characteristics and propose a working option for elaborating a scenario. The final aim is to help military planners have a good working procedure when developing a scenario in order to create a document updated with warfare evolution and operational planning process ready to respond to all risks and threats. The scenario is a way used by military structures at all levels of military art (strategical, operational and tactical) to get in contact with a probable unknown situation, to assimilate it and to sort it out. The article focuses on the scenario development process and proposes stages and activities that should be followed by a joint operational group when tasked with preparing a scenario.

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 problem of forming military decisions lies in the very core of this article. Among others, there are a lot of highly unpredictable impact factors; there are many assessment criteria for individual variants of solving problems. Criteria of qualitative characters, and various interpretations of data information demand quality decisions; they are sometimes difficult to understand and even contradictory. The commanders and their staffs must be well educated, trained and experienced. To meet this precondition we must ensure quality of career training, supported by practical experiences. The staff work must be practiced regularly, with the use of various scenarios, supplemented by historical studies of past or recent fi ghts and battles.

Effective strategic management is determined by several factors. Firstly, it is influenced by knowledge, experience and skills of all stakeholdersresponsible for preparation of strategic decisions and decision taking. Secondary and no less importantly, it depends on the quality of internal business processes dealing with all aspects of defence policy formulation and execution. Outputs from strategic management are strategic, conceptual, planning and evaluating documents. This article offers hierarchy of strategic documents defines their purpose and content and outlines responsibilities for their elaboration. Recommendations reflect assessment of current legal and procedural framework, strategic management theory and best practise. Ambition is to propos for consideration one of many possible solutions in order to reinforce strategic defence management.

The term "new wars" is often used to describe how terrorist groups achieve objectives in addition to the "classic" means of intervention by states. Terrorist organizations use asymmetric methods of warfare to target the weaknesses of Western states. Consequently, conventional wars have also changed into hybrid wars. The legal status of terrorist organizations is a major problem for the rule of law. In responding to terrorist attacks, the distinction between crime and terrorism is difficult. The "war on terror" is governed by different rules and principles and is extremely difficult to wage. Conflicts last a long time and victory against terrorism is rarely possible due to the networked structure of terrorist organizations and the way they intermingle with the population. In addition to an alliance-wide approach, there is a national solution to answer these new threats in form of the comprehensive national defense in Austria.

The article offers for expert discussion research outcomes assessing commanders´ development in the area of leadership for assignments in defense organization. It also evaluates the level of utilization of gained competencies while managing these organizations. Research was conducted from 2017 to 2019 and embraced predominantly surveys among participants of career courses provided by the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies of Defense University in the life-long education program. Research outcomes proved limited level of understanding and implementation of leadership theoretical framework in daily business. Additionally, it shows that the implementation of verified leadership processes and principles by middle- and higher-military management fluctuates about the average level. Furthermore, it figured out an insufficient application of all available instruments for people motivation and support including the approach "leading by example". Finally, it outlined several recommendations for the reinforcement of military personal preparation in the area of leadership for the successful conduct of middle- and higher-managerial position in military organizations. The first and at the same time the most significant step is the recommendation for implementing leadership areas into the Ministry of Defense conceptual documents in the form of vision, strategy and systemic measures.

The article is about the revolt of French soldiers against the failing immigration policy of their country. It explains its rational causes at the historical, geopolitical as well as security levels. It analyses its three main acts since 2013 until today and presents their key actors: the high level generals and politicians. These acts are presented as historical accidents. The article shows that French soldiers refuse to be silent face to face big stakes, especially on the field of defence of the Republic against the growing violence of young immigrants. The text continues with the analysis of two manifests of French soldiers from spring 2021 that evoke the threat of the civil war in France and the role of the Armed forces in such a scenario.

Security and defence issues have always been the subject of scientific and artistic interest. The topicality of the researched issues is especially emphasized in the conditions of changing the concepts of security and bringing them from the traditional level to a level reflecting the modern reality. The article attempts to review the genesis and development of the security concept by presenting related and fundamental concepts, related and synonymous terms of the term "security", and various levels of security. The authors try to briefly describe the problem, which is reflected in a number of Bulgarian and international scientific and legislative sources, and which reflects the research purpose of the presented work.

The article is about the immigration in France and its consequences on the security field. It starts by the historical context and pays a big attention to the development during last two decades. It analyses the process of the islamisation on the cultural, social, security, and political levels. It continues by the French debate which reflects the clash of two contrasting approaches: political correctness vs. critical attitudes. The French experts dispute about two key subjects: the numbers of the immigrants and, namely, the correlations between the immigration and the growing numbers and brutality of the terrorist attacks (the so - called amalgam). The last part analyses the place and the role the immigrants in the French armed forces. This text offers an original periodisation of the phenomena of the immigration in France since the first post WW II years until today. It examines not only its quantitative aspects, but also its qualitative changes.

The article deals with the issue of warfare. Its aim is to describe and clarify the character of warfare in its contemporary doctrinal context. The authors of the article focused on the specifics of individual forms of warfare and its complexity within the annexation of Crimea by the armed forces of the Russian Federation in 2014. Description, content and comparative analysis of used sources and doctrinal publications were used. The authors conclude that the complexity of contemporary warfare creates appropriate conditions for the nation and its armed forces to enforce its interests and achieve strategic goals. The main contribution of the article is to provide information that is not available in professional literature or it is not part of doctrinal or other national military publications.