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Crime prevention belongs among main and long-term tasks in work with personnel in the MoD Sector. It is organized at three levels: interagency, departmental and local. It is concentrated at decreasing risk factors that usually contribute to criminal behaviour. In the near future, when organizational structure of MoD will be optimalized, current valid documents dealing with crime prevention are going to be reassessed, so they could meet new requirements of command and control system. They will be more directed to problems of extremism, property-related crimes, alcohol addiction, drug and non-drug abuse.

The preparation of soldiers for future employment in the civilian labor market is a critical issue that requires attention. This research aimed to identify soldiers' preferences regarding their transition to civilian employment after their military service. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 128 active-duty soldiers from two units of the Czech Armed Forces. The majority of respondents prefer a second career in the private sector, and most would like to start preparing several months before their service ends. Many respondents expressed interest in expanding their skills to improve employability, with retraining courses being the most preferred option. Overall, interest in the offered support tools for career transition was significant, with the job portal being the most favored. Many respondents believe soldiers face difficulties in securing civilian employment after their service and assess the current system for preparing soldiers for a second career as underdeveloped.

The article addresses the use of social media intelligence (SOCMINT) as a tool for recruiting and selecting souces by foreign intelligence services, with an emphasis on the risks it poses to students in military studies at national military universitiy. It analyzes the specific ways in which SOCMINT enables foreign intelligence agencies to effectively gather personal data and profile potential collaborators from both public and private information shared online. Research conducted among students of the University of Defense and other institutions revealed that military students share comparable types of information on social networks as their civilian peers, making them equally vulnerable to the activities of foreign intelligence services. However, military students are preparing for careers in defense and security, making them a significantly more attractive target for foreign intelligence agencies than other categories of employees.

The article is a polemic reflection over the potential concept and vision of defence and EU combined armed forces, from the military point of view. It recalls previous efforts and present activities to implement common security and defence policy in practice. It is a short analysis of conditions under which the EU is situated, and in general contours it characterizes possible advantages of common European armed forces. It expresses author's opinion that by forming "European Pillar" in NATO, the transatlantic linkage between the EU and the USA will not be weakening, but on the contrary, it will be strengthen. The author uses the terms "European army" and "common armed forces of EU" that he takes as synonyms and therefore he asks the reader to take this fact in account.

The research described in this paper was conducted in the framework of institutional research project Strategic Alternatives (STRATAL) within the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies of University of Defence in Brno, the Czech Republic. The main objective of this contribution is to assess the evolution of the Czech defence policy (CDP) since the last summer 2016. The main impetuses for the CDP evolution were provided by the NATO Summit in Warsaw, new European Global Strategy including the ambition to enhance defence cooperation among the EU member states and the pattern of dynamics in our security environment. The authors analysed the key change drivers (KCDs) and measures taken in political, military, administrative, economical and societal domain in order to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the defence policy. Finally, the authors offer several recommendations to enhance the responsiveness and preparedness of the Czech defence system and the Armed Forces both in short- and long-term time span.

The article is based on a study carried out as part of the Long-Term Organizational Development Plan project by the Center for Security and Military-Strategic Studies of the University of Defense entitled "Armed Conflict". As part of the study, the issue of strategic surprise was analyzed and assessed, the aim of which was to find causal mechanisms and connections between the security of state defense and the phenomenon of surprise in the conditions of the 21st century. The article deals with the issue of surprise and its impact on state defense security. It describes strategic surprise as a principled aspect with implications and impacts on state defense. It examines the issue of surprise as a principle of military art in the context of contemporary strategic thinking.

The paper outlines several recommendations for strengthening the institutional framework of the analytical support function for credible defence management. Recommendations are drawn based on the outcome of the institutional research project named Strategic Alternatives conducted by the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies of University of Defence (CSMSS). The multi-objective research focuses on organisational arrangement of the analytical support function within the overall ministry of defence organisational architecture of several countries (Canada, Norway, Sweden) as well as the NATO structure and management (in this case, the main focus embraces the analytical support to defence planning). Analytical support to defence decision making process in these countries enjoys a long-term tradition which goes back to the period of WWII. The way the analytical function is understood is highly relevant also for the enhancement of credible defence management in the Czech Republic and its Ministry of Defence.

The aim of the text is to present the approach to assessing the military potential of the state as well as the will or possibilities to be used to achieve national strategic interests or power objectives. This approach is methodologically based on the sectoral analysis of the state's power potential and its possible projections in the construction and use of armed forces. The described and used approach in the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic is applied to the current Russian Federation and its military or power activities

The paper deals with cyber security, cyber defence and operations in cyber space focusing on the department of defence. Tasks implied from the Czech Republic's, NATO's and European Union strategic documents and roles of participating subjects have been analysed. Four scenarios as another source of identified tasks were created and used to describe possible situations requiring cyber defence capabilities. The presented analysis is a prerequisite for specifying required capabilities, and a proposal how to assign roles, responsibilities and required capabilities.

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 aim of this study was to create an overview of the Czech Armed Forces' development in approach to environmental protection from 1989 to 2022. Using the methods of analysis, synthesis and comparison of the Czech, EU´s and NATO´s environmental legislation, we created a comprehensive and previously unpublished overview of environmental protection within the Czech Armed Forces. Found outputs were set into illustrations depicting the activities in the environmental field with internal links between civil legislation, EU's requirements, and NATO's policy in chronological order. We conclude that the year 2000 represents a key milestone from which the approach to environmental protection have stagnated. Among the reasons for the stagnation, we identify commanders' concerns about "green approach" to troop training and the lack environmental education within defence department.

The White Paper on Defence was approved by the Government of the Czech Republic on 18 May 2011. The article describes a circumstances of the document development and its substance and role in the family of the defence strategic documents. In addition, the article highlights some important measures of the White Paper that has been implemented in practice. The author who was a member of the committee, responsible for development, and an editor of the White Paper, responds to some voices, claiming that the document has not come up to expectations and it is not usable for the future of the Czech Armed Forces. The author presents his lessons learned from the development and implementation of the document and describes some recommendations for the future.

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 presents a formal economic framework for assessing the sustainability of prolonged attritional warfare. Using the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine as a case study, the paper models the interaction between military production and consumption (losses) to evaluate the limits of state endurance under sustained conflict. The core of the analysis is a differential function of the war economy, defined as the net capacity to sustain operations over time, which is the difference between production and losses. This function is embedded within a theoretical construct that distinguishes between sustainable and unsustainable operational regimes, marked by critical thresholds of system exhaustion. Through a combination of regression analysis and symbolic modelling, the paper demonstrates how Russia’s current attritional strategy may be approaching a structural breaking point. The findings offer a conceptual and empirical basis for evaluating wartime industrial resilience and may inform strategic policy and conflict forecasting.

Based on the content analysis method, this study analyzes the first ever published security strategy of the Israel Defense Forces, which was published in 2015. The main objective of the paper is not only to present the circumstances of its creation and discuss the main objectives of this strategic security document, but also to outline the broader geopolitical context from which it emerged. The authors argue that the document primarily emphasized two areas - the use of force and capacity building of the Israeli military. Among other things, the publication of the strategy was intended to have a deterrent effect. In the conclusion, the authors compare the Gideon Plan and its follow-up, the Tnufa Plan, and point to the considerable importance that consensus among political and military elites has in the implementation of such a document and reflect on what lessons and inspiration can be drawn from this case in our geographic space in the process of formulating or reformulating strategic security documents.

The most frequently used methods during strategic documents processing at the Ministry of Defence are group discussion, brainstorming, discussion and analysis of stakeholders. SWOT analysis and other methods are represented in less than a fifth of cases. The research results show that some methods are used in methodologically wrong way, meanwhile, the most common method used is intuition based on experience. Implementation of strategic analysis usually encounters at the Ministry of Defence a lot of barriers. The article describes the results of research in this area and presents some recommendations for improvement, particularly synergistic use of methods called multi-methodology.

This article tries to analyse the employees of central state administration, who are involved in analytical, conception, planning and strategy activities. We organized a research at eleven ministries in 2013, to familiarize themselves with their roles. Only three ministries refused to take part in this research (home office, regional development ministry and agriculture ministry). The results reached describe how examined groups evaluated various factors influencing their analytic and conception performances. The identified state at the Defence Ministry is compared with overall situations at other ministries of the Czech Republic. At the end of this article the author expresses certain suggestions and recommendations how to improve current state of affairs.

This study provides a summary overview of the creation and the activities of the international security architecture in the form of their two main pillars, i.e. the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the Near and Middle East region. Within the framework of international security relations, this is a very unstable and conflictual region, where this instability has lasted practically since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The global UN, its overall activity and importance, especially humanitarian and peace-building activities not only for the Near and Middle East region, is very beneficial, through out the Cold War period up to the present day. As a security organization, NATO is among the most important global actors influencing current international security relations. Through their activities, both of these organizations represent a essential means of ensuring world peace and security.

The article deals with approaches and tasks of education in the field of security and state defence of the Czech Republic. It is based on the legal framework and informs the professional public about the initiative and process of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic and Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic in particular area. Preparation of citizens for state defence conception, which was approved by the resolution of the Government of the Czech Republic on the 1^st April 2019, reacts to results within the implementation of this Conception adopted in 2013 and reflects an unsatisfactory situation in its realization. It deals with new approaches and tasks of education in the field of security and state defence.

The article deals with the Information Support of Human Resources Management of the Ministry of Defense in terms of providing information on the quantity and quality of the personnel of the department for decision making processes. The first part describes the tools and methods of analysis for processing this information. The second part provides practical examples of this information support. On the basis of analytical studies the status of staff is presented in 2015 and 2016, supplemented by comments from the author, indicating possible ways of presenting and using this information in Human Resource Management. The author of the article, which presents the results of the long-standing experience of the creator of the information management support system, concludes that the data generated by this system could lead the adoption of a number of fundamental strategic decisions.

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.

The aim of the paper is to determine the extent of the use of strategic and decision-making analysis methods and the specifics and barriers of their practical application in the process of creating conceptual documents in the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic. In the qualitative research, a semi-structured questionnaire was created for the purpose of data collection and submitted to eighteen creators of the department's conceptual documents. The obtained data were evaluated by open coding according to the grounded theory, one of the methods of systematizing qualitative data. The results show that the methods are used, but informally or in a modified form - adapted to the specifics of the department. Barriers to the use of methods, are primarily the varying level of competence of the creators, the inappropriateness of certain methods for certain types of documents, time pressure or the preference for an intuitive approach. The ideal strategy seems to be a combination of the intuitive and rational approach.

The article is focusing on challenges connected with execution of the Czech Army military operations in tropical rainforest under umbrella of international organization. The military engagements in the tropical climate depends on unit general characterization and necessary unit competency insufficiently specified in the Czech Army Catalogue of Capabilities. The Czech Army Catalogue of Capabilities standardizes training methods, training cost, and required training area and required training equipment and material. Based on experience gained from the training of the Czech military personnel in Jungle Training Centre in French Guyana, we can assess that to attain required skills for jungle operational environment acquires a few weeks. The international organizations are capable to provide necessary training for jungle operational environment in order to reach required level of skills and competencies before operation execution.

This paper examines the role of strategic communication in military operations, with a focus on its impact during the first year of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Using a process-tracing methodology, the study explores whether Ukrainian strategic communication was decisive in resisting Russian attacks. Our findings indicate that strategic communication functioned as a central component of Ukraine’s defence. Effective messaging mobilized broad support from diverse actors, including state entities with no regional stakes and non-state contributors such as civilians, volunteer fighters, and organizations, driven by motivations beyond self-interest. Ukraine’s resilience stemmed not from a deceptive Russian strategy (i.e., a lack of genuine intent to engage in a full-scale war), but from its bold counter-offensive, bolstered by international aid - support amplified and sustained by the strategic communication efforts that shaped global perceptions and secured critical assistance.

The center of gravity in military affairs represents a dominant element of military art, used in the planning and conduct of military operations. The doctrine defines it as the main source of power that provides the actor with his strength, freedom of action and/or the will to fight. This article examines Clausewitz’s concept of center of gravity through selected philosophical perspectives and clarifies its significance in military theory and practice. It presents the doctrinal development of the concept, discusses its context, and concludes that the concept of the center of gravity remains a key doctrinal and practical element of operational art.

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 article follows the author's comparative analysis of American and Russian nuclear doctrines and armaments from the fall of 2021. It presents the current nuclear strategy of the United States of America based on a content analysis of three specific areas of the updated version of the Nuclear Posture Review. Applying interpretive analysis and a rich secondary sources apparatus, the author also reflects on his 2021-formulated assumptions and expectations about the further development of American nuclear strategy under President Joe Biden. The author analyzes the influence of the presidential administration's ideological and political ambitions together with the decisive geopolitical events of 2022 and concludes that mainly due to the second factor, the current shape of American nuclear strategy has not undergone any revolutionary changes and continues to maintain a long-standing continuity and consensus about its basic principles.

The purpose of this comprehensive study is to describe organizational scheme inside defence sector and recollect some more or less neglected rules of its organizational structure. This paper ought to confute some of the myths that are repeatedly used for advancing somebody's particular interests, frequently opposing to smooth running defence sector and its subordinate elements, their performances and duties. The author's prime motive is to explain this problem to a wide public and thus contribute to opening the discussion on this theme, well in advance, before the measurements originated in the White Paper on Defence would be put forward and implemented by some proposers, backed by subjective misconceptions and interpretations of actual state of affairs.

The article discusses the possibilities of joint deployment of combat unmanned ground vehicles with combat infantry units. It summarizes the deployment of these assets in past and present military operations, including the presentation of deployment experiences available from public sources, and examines the joint deployment of an infantry squad with an unmanned ground combat platform during an attack operation. Using a constructive simulation, it presents the results of the deployment of an infantry squad during an attack operation with and without the support of a combat unmanned ground vehicle. As part of the discussion, he develops the ideas necessary for the cooperation of the unit with an unmanned vehicle. The aim of the article is, among other things, to open a debate in the professional community about the possibilities of effective use of unmanned ground systems to support the activity of combat units in military operations.

The assessment of force ratios and battle casualties is a crucial aspect of the military decision-making process. This article evaluates three different tools used by the Army of the Czech Republic at the tactical level: a calculator based on Lanchester's laws, a module within the Battle Information System, and a constructive simulation system. The results indicate that while all tools produce similar outputs, the constructive simulation system offers more accurate estimates of combat losses for both equipment and personnel. Additionally, this system enhances the ability of commanders and staff to adapt to changing scenarios during planning. The primary conclusion is that the constructive simulation system provides a practical and flexible solution for supporting the military decision-making process at the brigade and battalion levels.