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Suicide bombing represents a low-cost, low-tech weapon that is readily available, requires little training, leaves little forensic trace, and strikes fear into the general population. Almost exclusively, suicide bombers emanate from distinct ethnicities and religions; furthermore, recent history indicates that they come from the Arab/Muslim or East Asian cultures. As important as the suicide bombers are the activists and sympathizers who offer them support and comfort. These activists may recoil from committing acts of violence themselves but may sympathize with those who do, and offer moral and material support. This article explores the psychosocial aspects and methods of suicide bombers in general, but with particular focus on those operating in Palestine, Moscow (Chechen guerrillas, 2002), Singar (Iraq 2007).

Anti-ballistic missiles are missiles designed to counter enemy's ballistic missiles. First, the author compares strategic patterns reflecting various eras of the former bipolar world. Their mutual balance of that time could be described as Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). As long as MAD was a fact of life, the ABM Treaty fulfilled its important function as a cornerstone of strategic stability. Keeping nuclear arsenals at a level which is not even justifiable is selfcontradictory, as the military strategy and targeting policy is based on the capability of the other side, not on its intentions. Today's Russian policy is shaped by the status-driven desire to deal with the United States from a position of power-related symmetry and strategic parity, by negating the unique position of the United States. The American ballistic missile defence policy used to be also a central element of their containment strategy towards China. However, at present, Ballistic Missile Defence (BDM) sets as a top-priory the defence against the so-called rough states, rather than against Moscow or Beijing.

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

In 1990 we expected that the Czechoslovak Army could be fully professional, around the year 2005. The process of professionalization was successfully finished after 15 years, by the successive state that replaced the former Czech and Slovak Federative Republic?the Czech Republic. This article follows the tracks of professionalization process. In accordance with the share of conscript soldiers, K. W. Haltiner divides armed forces into four types: (I) army fully dependent on conscripts; (II) nearly 2/3 conscripts; (III) less then one-half conscripts, army is not dependent on them; (IV), fully professional army. As the graph shows, the pace of professionalization was slow, for a very long time the ACR belonged to type II then the Czech army used to be type III. The author leaves the question ?whether the professionalization is forever? opened.

One of most important tasks of the Army of the Czech Republic is the preparation for country defence, be prepared to defend the republic against attacks from outside, with the use of Allied defence system. The core of manning in time of danger or war is recruitment of all people coming under compulsory conscription and those with the duty of extra service. Even though the compulsory military service (national service) was abolished in 2004 and the ACR became fully professionalized, Czech population is obliged to conscription/draft. All men/women over the age of 18 till 60 could be conscripted. The difference is that this legal obligation is realized only after the government has proclaimed the state of danger or declares war. This selection, namely the activities of recruiting boards, must be prepared well ahead, in time of peace, in cooperation with municipal authorities, state and regional administration. The author also deals with ?extra service?, which might come into existence in case we are short of conscripts.

Manning Czech armed forces in peace, in time of danger or war, are backed by law regulations and DoD internal normative acts. In fact, Czech legislature is still insufficient, so the author advises its revision. Laws concerning defence ought to be timeless, further amendments beg the questions concerning their correctness. When the institute of ?Conscientious Objector? was established in 1990, the figures of soldiers in their compulsory service were reduced by 15-20 % of planned numbers. The membership in an established sect, background as an active pacifist was not required for an objector to be eligible for exemption from military service. Greece (the Hellenic Republic) is one of a few European countries still preserving the compulsory military service for all Greek young men even in time of peace. As conscientious objectors are not regarded those who served in armed forces in the past, who are legally entitled to own a deadly weapon, or were prosecuted or sentenced for an offence tied with arms. The author suggests adopting similar arrangements like in Greece.

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).

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.

English is one of official NATO languages, therefore at the Defence University belongs among very important subjects. The Centre of Language Preparation took over ELT (English Language Teaching) in all faculties of Defence University, so did at FEM (Faculty of Economics and Management). This paper is dealing with students' proficiency monitoring in ELT and the factors that could influence their results during their language preparation. The authoresses have been monitoring bachelor programme students from the very beginning to the final university terminology exam in English language. The teachers' teams from particular faculties of the University of Defence observe in their research the students' progress for which the questionnaires data were used. The recommendations provide guidance for improving and making more uniform procedures for screening and entrance testing prospective students of the Defence University

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.

After the end of Cold War, all Europe abandons the system of obligatory conscription in time of peace. Advancing European integration changes the configuration of threats, which is reflected in changed structure of armed forces. As Charles de Gaulle said in 1934 (which is also the motto of German book Wehrpflicht oder Freiwilligenarmee? Wehrstrukturentscheidungen im europäischen Vergleich, 2006): "We should not maintain an army we are used to, but we should build the army we really need." They are the structural changes in defence sector that could provide necessary means for common security and defence policy in being. The supporters of professional/obligatory military service differ according to their political beliefs. Surprisingly, in Germany, liberal, green or communist oriented parties prefer voluntary/ professional military service. The same discussions took place in our country after 1990.

The key fact is that changes in the political, economic, social, and technical spheres are making it possible for a small group bound together by a cause to use new technologies to challenge nation-states. 4GW (Fourth Generation Warfare) uses all the shifts from a mechanical to an information/electronic society to maximize the power of insurgency. Fifth-generation warfare (5GW) will result from the continued shift of political and social loyalties to causes rather than nations. It will be marked by the increasing power of smaller and smaller entities and the explosion of biotechnology. The purpose of this article is to widen the discussion on what forms 4GW may take and to offer a possible model for the next generation of war: 5GW. Adapted from Military Review, May-June 2007.

This article deals with the EU command and control functions and provides basic information on the structure and capabilities of the EU CCS in Battle Group EU operations. The author describes political and strategical levels CCS (COREPER, GAERC, COPS, CivCom, EUMC, EUMS, BDE HQ, prospective EU FHQ). Only US, EU and E3 (Britain, France, Germany) are capable to realize integrated expeditional operations. The ACR can work only with cooperation with them. The Czech Republic as a small EU member state is actively engaged in the building of the Battle Group EU. The Czech Army is going to increase its expeditionary capabilities as demanded and be prepared for a broader range of conflicts and crises in the vital area of the EU concerns. At present, the ACR is able to carry out a self-supported, integrated expedition operation only on the edge of all its strength. The political leaders must bear this fact in mind, as the army mustn't be overburdened, otherwise it might lose its credibility. All information and data for this paper were drawn from unclassified sources.

In November 2007, under the auspices of Lieutenant-General Vlastimil Picek, Chief of the General Staff ACR, there was the 4th international conference held in Prague, dealing with command, control in Network Enabled Capability environment: NEC-IV. The conference was organized by the Institute for Strategical Studies, Defence University Brno, in cooperation with the Department Communications and Information Systems, DoD, and the Department of the Development of Forces-Operational Department, DoD, last but not least with a civilian Carolina Agency, as NEC principles could be utilized even in civil sector. The conference is regarded as a step from theory to practice, both in the field of education, preparation and practical exercises supported by simulators and trainers. In the immediate future, we must develop the integrated environment for EU Battle Groups, brigade task force, covering the whole operational spectrum, so that we could reach a synergy effect in education, pedagogy, science and research.

At present, we pay great attention to alternative methods of teaching and learning foreign languages. Actually, it is difficult for language instructor to choose from among them. This article is a sort of hint to help teachers to pick up the most suitable one. Reciprocal teaching has its prominent position, namely in the field of reading with understanding. There four basic strategies: prediction, questioning, clarification, summarizing. During socio-cognitive conflict, in discussion, the language knowledge of learners (students) is pushed up and higher, learners are mutually influenced in social interaction. This learning process is sometimes recorded, monitored. The role of a teacher is multifaceted, indispensable and very demanding. 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.

This essay is based upon the article by Lt.Col. Peter Zillmer, German military journal Europäische Sicherheit, No. 8/2007. The point is as follows: anti-air defence faces qualitative new tasks, this new qualitative level is constituted by the fact that anti-air defence has only few second to prepare all elements for direct firing against attacks of undirected rockets, mortar mines, launched by asymmetric enemies. It is the question of reconnaissance, and early warning, command and control of fire. NATO's programme Defence Against Terrorism results were demonstrated at air firing range in spring 2007. Coalition forces in Iraq are exposed to permanent mass rocket attacks from the part of insurgents, so they use system Phalanx LPWS, originally developed for direct ship defence. The article further enumerates other systems in use: German FüWES, Swiss Skyshield, and so on.

Department by Ing. Jiří Dušek. The purpose of this article is to provoke discussion among military public dealing with economy in order to improve economy management in the forces. The author would like to point out the gap between officially proclaimed principles and true economy development in MoD department. Why proclaimed principles remain only on a sheet of paper and are not introduced in practice? In three theses are summarized the main problems to be resolved. The article is not conceived as a mere critique, it also features several proposals how to improve, optimalize, economy behaviour of the ACR. Among others he proposes to make us of 3E indicator (Economy, Effectiveness and Expediency), SWOT analysis, etc. Last but not least, he underlines the importance of economy education for army officers and leading civilian officials.

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 this article the author explores the potential roles for unmanned ground vehicles (tactical UGVs) in the modern battle space as pack mules, fighting scouts and perimeter sentries as new concepts of operation, designs and products emerge. Remote control vehicles could be also used in explosive ordnance disposal operations. Urban warfare looks set to become a particularly rich field for this sort of robots. The article discusses the challenges in developing and deploying cost-effective UGVs on the battlefield. There are still many problems, namely technological. The price for a UGV is comparable to price for four or five wheeled armoured vehicles. The article is based upon materials from RUSI Defence Systems (No. 2/2007), studies by Myron E. Mills, Kevin Ivison, James Masey. Ulf Stremmel; and Andy Simms: Robot Wars. Soldier, No. 12, 2007.

This year, the Defence University published the book titled Risk Management, by Brig. Prof. Ing. Rudolf Urban, CSc., and Prof. Ing. Rudolf Božek, CSc., as a textbook offering comprehensive glance at topical questions of impending risks and responses to match them. Risks are in fact part of our everyday life, out aspiration must be not to create unnecessary risks, constituted risks as fast as possible eliminate. The authors give a definition of many terms, together with their English counterparts. Especially they draw our attention to terms used wrongly in newspapers or magazines. This reviewed monograph is of highest quality and the peer reviewer recommends it to all qualified readers, not only to those who are professionally interested in security problems. Security Forum '08 by PhDr. Antonín Rašek. 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.

This operation was led by Germany, and made up of elements contributed by twenty EU nations; as well as Turkey and Switzerland. The EU deployed FHQ in Kinshasa and simultaneously kept the over-the-horizon force in Gabon, in order to ensure a deterrent capacity and to avoid unnecessary heavy military presence in Kinshasa. After Operation Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the EUFOR RD Congo was a second EU largest military operation, involving a total of almost 3,000 soldiers and officers). The co-operation with MONUC was decisive in containing the potential spread of violence at a particularly sensitive moment in the election process. The operation demonstrated the EU ability to successfully conduct medium scale autonomous multinational operations within a planned time frame under the UN mandate. The views expressed in this assessment are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of EU Military Structure or the Czech Ministry of Defence. All information and data for this paper were drawn from unclassified sources.

In his review of the "Phenomenon of Alternative Service: Do not Kill for a State, Nevertheless Serve the Nation" by Bohuslav Pernica, dr. Antonín Rašek evaluates positively the choice of discussed theme, which is not only historical, but it has an importance for the future, as performing social and other activities with the use of a citizen compulsory service is still necessary. Some people consider introducing this sort of general service, together with the so-called volunteerism, as it is in our neighbour-Austria. The book is concentrated on the theme of alternative service mostly from economic point of view, social problems are only hinting and the influence of alternative service on the performance of compulsory military service in the former Czechoslovakia and in the Czech Republic is overlooked. It was in the early 90's when conscripted soldiers were thinking up various reasons why to evade military service, which seriously violated the performance of military service.

The study analyzes the key features of Russian policies in the late 2000s and their prospective developments. It is above all the rise of Russia's economic power, boosted by the favourable rising trend of energy prices (oil and gas) that has helped to resume again the position of one of the key world powers, obsessively pursuing its geopolitical interests in a new emerging multipolar world. This also determines its relations with other major global actors, e.g. the U.S., the EU, and China (outlined in this article). As far as military budget is concerned, it is increasing. Russia has overcome a long period of stagnancy. After 2007, they re-established strategical patrol flights off Russian territory; great effort is aimed at power projection, as a means to secure natural resources beyond Russian boarders. The study is closed by Russia's geopolitical prospects till the year 2020. and its Anticipated Development

It is not too often we could meet such a comprehensive monograph, dealing with security problems. Among such books belongs a book by Jan Eichler, with the same title, published by Charles University Prague, 2007. The most relevant chapter, Wars waged by the U.S. and its allies after the start of global terrorism, offers a provocative question, whether democratic nations, indirectly and unintentionally, gave rise to the upsurge of antipathy amongst the states with different political constitution, resulting in acts of terror? The ambiguous assessments of American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq seem to support author?s view. According to the reviewer, dr. A. Rašek, the author is wrong about the role land forces after the RMA?Revolution in Military Affairs. Without ground forces we are not able to win today?s asymmetrical warfare. The large part of book deals with conflicts not very familiar in the Czech Republic: Ethiopian-Eritrean war, disturbances in Somalia (operation Restore Hope), Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, Sierra Leone, Srí Lanka, Cashmere, Nepal, Haiti, Bolivia, and Colombia.

This article deals with the birth of a new concept in the field of the warfare-FORCE XXI, the long-terms vision that influenced all advanced militaries, among others the author introduces a list with names of programmes: USA (Land Warrior), Great Britain (FIST - Future Integrated Soldier Technology), Canada (ISSP - Integrated Soldier System Platform), Germany (IdZ - Infanterist der Zukunft), France (FELIN - Fantssin a Equipement et Liaison Intégrés), the Netherlands (SMP - Soldier Modernisation Programme), Norway (NORMANS - Norwegian Modular Artic Network Soldier), Denmark (Danish Soldier Modernisation), Belgium (BEST - Belgium Soldier Technology), Italy (Soldato Futuro), Portugal (Sodado do Futuro), Slovakia (PIBS - advanced combat individual system) Poland (Tytan). The author underlines fundamental changes within this course of study, both technical-implementation of new technologies and weaponry-and doctrinal. He also describes current situation within the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic.

The author follows the mainstream economics, i.e. leading economics of defence policy, ranging from economics of defence in the nuclear age, via economics of Iraq conflict, to current fight against terrorism. New paradigm must be drawn, taking into account source management, the distribution of economics weight of individual national economies of all countries participating in the fight against global terrorism.

The author compares two scholarly books: World's Tension Epicentres by M. Šlachta (published in 2007) and Security Policy of the Czech Republic by the team of authors headed Jaroslav Janda. The latter study of 1996 uses different terminology: instead of today's favourite teams threat or security threats, they are civilizational risks, economical risks, military risks, environmental risks and so on. The special attention is paid to undemocratic, autocratic states, violating humane rights. Those who owned nuclear weapons are regarded as especially dangerous to peace. Those risks have multiplications effects, they could be solved only by collective effort of all interested states. The recent history confirms predictions made by the team of Jaroslav Janda. The analysis by Mojmír Šlachta contributes to deeper understanding present state of affairs, among others it covers rising Islamic word.

What is Necessary to Consider in the Process of Organization Structures Construction, Military Forces Equipment and Training in ACR, after the Ending of "Conception" by Ing. Antonín Krásný, CSc. The very welcomed "Concept of Development of the Professional Army of the Czech Republic and the Mobilization of Armed Forces of the Czech Republic" had to be revised because of the lack financial means. This fact influenced a lot of live of our army. Additional career officers were to leave his services; military material, vehicles were further reduced. At present, we have to balance our military strength with security demands reflecting running changes in world's security surrounding. The main aim of the article is to describe development of security environment in the Central Europe. It considers decision mechanisms reform in NATO and transformations of its military forces structures. It highlights an impact of demographic, technological, institutional changes and changes in value system of defence assurance of the CR. We must still bear in mind that for us, NATO alliance, supplemented by the EU structures, is the main tool of our security.

It might be logical to occupy the main posts of enemy's command, but to take over the school? The Military Political Academy (MPA KG) constituted natural background of the so-called reformed forces, arising after the January 1968, at the beginning of the Prague's Spring. The MPA teachers and scholars outlined new prospects of European security development, among others with minor role of the Warsaw Pact, i.e. with the demand to rethink key principles of party's military policy, to reassess communist military doctrine. That's why the invaders regarded this university more dangerous then the then MoD. The review, eyewitness of those historic events, recollects prominent names not to be forget: Milan Ždímal, Vojtěch Mencl, Václav Prchlík, and shortly describes their following personal history.