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This opening study is written by two authors, members of Centre for Social and Economic Strategies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University Prague, which is an interdisciplinary research and education unit engaged in the development of theory, methodology and practice of exploring possible futures, and the application of analyses and forecasts in decision making. The authors propose to supplement prognostic scenarios by the so-called wild cards that represent something unpredictable, extra players or actors taking part in a global politics. They compare wild cards of 2001 with the present-day situation, and then predict state of affairs till 2040, among others, the islamisation of Europe and hispanisation of the United States. The purpose of this is to promote dialogues between military and security experts, politicians, civil servants, civil sector activists, as well as individual citizens.

At present, artillery problems are rather neglected. Artillery brigade, which consists of two arty battalions, can form two division task forces, up to two brigade task forces, or several battalion task forces. This presupposes establishing unified chain of command points. At present, we may form three main command points of division, brigade and battalion task force. The author depicts tasks and missions of individual levels of task forces, their composition, main elements of command and control. Special attention is paid to centres of combat support, or places of combat support at battalion level. At present, commanders of combat units do not use fully potential of artillery support. Therefore it is necessary to discuss those problems, so that our artillery could be used in most efficient way. The article is accompanied by several charts and pictures, showing schemes and tasks of artillery forces and standardized operational procedures.

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.

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.

In the Czech Republic, the schooling of security experts is broken into fragments, i.e. into many fields of study, which go beyond security politics. The state of affairs can't be regarded as satisfactory. The first step is the Resolution of Czech Security Council No. 32/2007, Common Minimum for Security Experts, which put a proposal to introduce security issues into teaching programmes in universities and institutions of further education, so that such institutions could obtain accreditation in this field. This minimum is specified namely for undergraduate study; graduated security studies ought to be more specialized. Political scientists involved in the study of security policy should attempt to devise solutions for problems of public concern. Security study covers issues such as non-military threats and risks, proliferation, pollution, natural disasters, mass migration, economy risks. It is tied with international relations, foreign policy and national security strategies.

The Centres of Gravity (COG) are characteristics, capabilities, or localities from which a military force derives its freedom of action, physical strength, or will to fight. The COG belongs among the most important operational concepts. It is the main source of power and strength. Without dermining enemy's COG we are not able to carry out any quick and resolute action, to reach ordered tasks, desired objectives. The primary purpose of this article is to offer basic information about this subject. This first part is concentrated predominantly to Carl von Clausewitz's ideas. The article especially aims on disunity and heterogeneity of comprehension of the COG theory in confrontation with contemporary doctrinal publications and original Clausewitz's theory. It highlights coherences that can affect fulfilling political and military objectives in current and future military operations.

The paper deals with the assessment of extremism in connection with the Czech Armed Forces. It analyses attitudes of various forms of Czech domestic extremist movements to the military sphere and possible impacts of the infiltration of extremists into the army, namely in time of danger (training militant activities, including paramilitarism, subversion, espionage, etc). The most important problem of the contemporary Czech counter-extremist policy in this area is the rise of neo-Nazi activities in the armed forces and the establishing of extreme right paramilitary units which take interest in the engagement of soldiers. Even though these activities are limited in our country, the author offers overall survey various obscure organizations, having connections to foreign groups sponsoring their Czech counterparts.

Supported by several historical examples, this article covers the past and contemporary development of both role and organizational structure of the infantry fire teams and squads. Fire team (or fireteam in British English) is an infantry grouping of four or less men (half of a section, GB); or one third of a squad (US). The fire team concept of the U.S. and British Army is shown as an example how to more effectively employ infantry in the all-volunteer military force. The author also shortly mentions Infantry Squad

Terrorism threatens to attack and destroy the open democracy, but what is terrorism? The main aim of this essay is to formulate some proposals of a minimal operational definition tied with terrorism, as well as a definition of terrorist attack with the ambition to surpass a possibility of an ambiguous construction in the field of semantical research. Terrorism is usually described as unlawful violent activism targeted against civilians or against civilian targets with the aim of achieving political, religious, ideological and other goals. It presents wellconsidered ways of production and fructification of fear that are applied on civilian targets. A terrorist attack communicates devastatingly as a pure act of violence inside the psychosomatic structure of its recipients (victims). The new terrorism after 9/11 attacks could be characterized by fanaticism and the impending danger of arms of mass destruction. It is a culture of death.

This article deals with the present state of command and control dilemma in brigade battle groups. It outlines the resources of the rationalization of organizational structures at HQs and it shows their impact on modular design of the command posts. The gradual introduction of NATO Network Enabled Capability (NEC) into Czech armed forces (Bde TF-Brigade Task Force), requires first, changes in the structure of individual components of command and control system; secondly, initiating basic changes oriented towards optimalization command and control structures; third, the preparation of commanders and staffs in the field of information technology, so that they could achieve knowledge and control dominance. At the same time organizational changes raise modification within command chains of separate groups.

This article is discussing the role of the Internet in the Islamic terrorist movement. It describes how the nature of the Internet provides the perfect medium for terrorism. Major terrorist organizations now have their own production capability, ranging from video capture, to video editing, to distribution, but, these organizations also have an advanced understanding of the concepts of influence, information warfare, and the power of targeted messages. This is further highlighted by the fact that among al Qaeda's original organizational structure was a committee dedicated to publicity and the media. The internet plays the role as a means of propaganda for recruitment and fund-raising, shaping public opinion in the Muslim world, terrorist training and instruction, operational planning for attacks, communication and open source information.

The so-called Provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) are a relatively new concept and element in coalition operations. Those teams have been operating in Afghanistan since the end of the year 2002. The evaluation and assessment of their work is very complicated and sometimes quite unambiguous. The main purpose of this article is to show to widest military community tasks and problems of PRTs; secondly to introduce main principles of work of PRTs under different conditions. Moreover, this article refers to fundamental problems that guide their PRTs development and work in countries that have some experiences with building and activities of PRTs. The author also describes the activities of 40 Czech military personnel PRT in Afghanistan (in the frame of German PRT, Badakshan Province, Fayzabad).

The Europeans would like to preserve an irreplaceable role of Americans in European security problems. On the other hand, NATO represents for the US a political and military means for American involvement in this region. The whole project of North Atlantic cooperation was drawn according to US demands, not to the contrary. So was the NATO transformation after the Cold War. For the Czech Republic is the bonding with the US the security priority number one. First, we joined the Partnership for Peace, as a primary step, previous to full membership in the Alliance. During wars in the former Yugoslavia in April 1992, we proved our loyalty by sending a joint Czechoslovak battalion for UNPROFOR operation with a total of 500 personnel. At present we've been sending our soldiers abroad to help peace effort of democratic nations headed by the US to stabilize security environment in the frame of international organizations, the UN, OSCE, etc.

This leading article deals with the sphere of strategy and defence policy. The essay is an output of scholarly work and therefore it is summarizing and evaluating problems in question with professional recommendations. First, the author draws our attention to various concepts of security and underlines national differences backed by national histories. Security concepts have their sources in deep analyses of potential threats and corresponding scenarios, with specific bias to Czech environment. He openly expresses his critical opinions on contemporary security documents, for lack of political security directions, as politicians in general have little knowledge of security and defence problems. In his opinion, the possible outcome lies in a partnership and cooperation with academics outside military and government structures, experts and members of security community, whose expert opinions could help namely to form long-term security concepts.

The ACR is going to take part in expeditionary operations abroad, so we must be prepared to supply and sustain such forces. Problems with the provision of the bakery products in the military operation and mission include diet; economical, technological, safety; and psychosocial aspects. The ground forces are to be effective. Now we are developing premixes that meet the conditions of nutritional content of bakery products and the indigenous products with the protective function. The new utilized technology is based on preparing dough with improvers. Cost analysis of producing bread and pastry in operation was carried out with a surprising outcome: the costs of our own production are approximately 4-6 times lower than the costs of products from the local or other producers or participating armies (which is contrary to present-day official policy buying from outside suppliers).

The author of this article considers the prospective changes in the development, character, missions and tasks of the Army of the Czech Republic, Those changes are deduced from the changing security environment and long-term development trends. To meet new demands, we must continue in building interoperability and compatibility. The battlefield operations will be planned and controlled by the systems of "Network Centric Warfare" and "Reach Back Operations". It will not be necessary for a commander to be in physical contact with operational theatre. Electronical high speed intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, reconnaissance will enable the high pace of military operations (together with common analyses, integration of collected data, evaluation of enemy's intents and activities). This will enable to build a credible defence, in the frame of collective security system, hand in hand with other NATO allies.

Some of the published critiques dealing with midterm planning are not true, as they were created without detailed knowledge of practice and methods how our midterm plan was created. Nevertheless, there are some real faults in midterm planning. According to the author, they are divided into two groups: external-they depend on quality of assignment; and internal-they are connected to the application of theory. Main external fault is the absence of long-term plan. In fact, it was introduced by the Order of Defence Minister, but it has not been worked up thoroughly. We lack adjusting main goals, tasks and priorities for MoD. Next problem are unstable and lacking financial sources. Internal mistakes are as follows: absence of mechanism for balanced changes between cycles of planning; implementation of life cycle cost and level of education of staff preparing data for planning.

This contribution written by two leading Czech scholars in the field of military nutrition/food deals with the quality of energetic and nutrition of food rations and allowances in the Army of the Czech Republic. The food quality is set by a prescribed index of rational nutrition, consisting of energetic values of used foodstuff and the contents of key nutrients (proteins, fats, saccharides, minerals, and vitamins). Czech defence department sets monetary values and costs of sustenance rations, continuously adapted to the growth of retail prices of food and an average structure of consumption of individual food categories for a person per day. Besides the modification of food supplements, the authors propose to lower energy value of food rations and prefer their biological significance, with regard to contents of fatty acids.

In NATO, here are many common items in welfare benefits, and there are different ones. Authoress depicts military social welfare in the CR, Slovakia, Germany, France, Poland, Hungary. The final part of this article compares systems of military benefits of mentioned countries. The authoress enumerates various conditions to be fulfilled, so that soldiers were entitled for welfare or retirement benefits. In nearly all countries, veteran?s pensions are regarded as the substitute for deferred, postponed pay. Retirement pays have its source in the last soldier?s salary. In the Czech Republic, retirement pays are based upon serviceman?s average best income in a calendar year, before he leaves the army, the time he served in the army, and its real income. Czech veteran?s social security scheme is separated from general (civil) social security system, as there some special military benefits that can?t be taken over by civil authorities.

In February 2008 the Security Forum took place in Slovakian city Banská Bystrica. The collection of 32 presented papers was issued by Matěj Bél University. This review summarizes main ideas of those papers, in a form of cross-section study. The reviewer finds most inspirative Maersheimer?s neorealistic theory of stability, classifying bipolarity above multipolarity, which is reflected in consequent evaluation of security threats. New security threats ask for the transformation of NATO alliance, in the background of political Islam or the recent Russian-Georgian conflict. The contents analysis of presented papers points to main hidden problem lying behind all security questions: whether the U.S. would be able to continue in its role as a world leader, explicitly owing to American economy difficulties, e.g. today?s financial and mortgage crisis.

Two retired American foreign ministers (state secretaries) G. P. Shultz, Henry Kissinger, former defence secretary William Perry, former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sam Nunn, signed the proclamation calling for freeing the world of nuclear weapons, eliminating nuclear weapons. The author of this article presents himself as their strong supporter. Among others, for two years, they have been explaining their views on pages Wall Street Journal. Several proclamations were issued in conjunction with the conference remembering Top Summit at Reykjavik where the INF treaty was signed by Mr. Gorbachev and Mr. Reagan. Their appeals contain practical measurements: lowering numbers of atomic warheads, START I prolongation, extended time of atomic warning, revoking plans for mass retaliation, common multilateral antiballistic defence, measures against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, opening dialog between the US and Russia to create a joint alert system and to work together to prevent catastrophic nuclear terrorist attacks.

From the point of history, at present, there is a turn in the deployment of the Czech army. The turning point lies in philosophy change concerning security and defence of our country, as well as in army build-up by itself. In the past, our armed forces used to be semi-professional army, i.e. the core of forces was formed by professional soldiers (officers, NCOs), supplemented by conscripts. In time of peace, all males were prepared and trained during their compulsory military service, after that they were trained as compulsory reserves. In war they could be immediately deployed in war organization. This deployment was planned well ahead, so was its logistical support. Upon examples the USA and Germany the author explains weak points of present organization, which-according to him-constitute a danger for wartime deployment of the ACR. The problem is in questions of mobilization, as volunteer soldiers represent only 0.6 per cent of respective population.

This second and closing part of this security study covers decades before the half of this century. The leading role in prevention and fight against armed conflicts will rest namely upon intelligence services. It is also expected the mass use of nonlethal weapons. The US will stay as the only leading superpower, minority expects a plurality model, i.e. the US will be only first among the equals. Some predicts the collapse of the EU. The Army of the Czech Republic ought to achieve full operational potential around the year 2012. It will take part in multinational missions. The Alliance armies should have 8 per cent of their capacities fully operable abroad. Under the preventive strategy, the regions of their prospective deployment will be in bordering countries around Europe, areas around the Eastern Mediterranean, or in the Far East. More or less, one problem remains still open: whether foreign deployments of the ACR really correspond to the interests and needs of the Czech Republic.

This article deals with accrual accounting concept in the terms of the public sector, where-in this context-accrual accounting is understood as a basis of accounting under which transactions and other events are recognized when they occur, and not only when cash or its equivalents are received or paid. Therefore, the transactions and events are recorded in the accounting records and recognized in the financial statements of the periods to which they relate. At first, the article introduces briefly the history of accrual accounting concept implementation in the area of public sector. Secondly, it summarizes main possible benefits and risks connected with the implementation of accrual concept to the public sector accounting.

Many years ago, in our army we commenced to build simulators and trainers for the preparation of military specialists in various fields of military skills. Mechanized and armour units have two simulations centres. In Brno, there is the simulation centre for battalion level and above, at Vyškov, there is the centre up to company level. Simulators and trainers are devices or systems that simulate specific conditions or the characteristics of a real process for the purposes military training. Today, most vocational training occurs in simulators, which save both time and money. Different simulators can faithfully simulate nearly every element of a fight. During training, soldiers and instructors meet some problems, details of which are depicted in this article. The author proposes to introduce several variants of study procedures, skills, as well as proceedings of paper work. The article is accompanied by several charts dealing with today's and prospective variants of training on simulators, respective schedules and timetables. Therefore it is necessary to discuss those problems, so that our artillery could be used in most efficient way. The article is accompanied by several charts and pictures, showing schemes and tasks of artillery forces and standardized operational procedures.