Fulltext search in archive

Recently the defence department has been meeting lower and lower money sources that could finally bring about lower salaries, reduction in numbers of servicemen, dozens of military units are dissolved. One of such economic measures are plans for dismantling the last Military Secondary School (MSS ) in the Czech Republic. Backed by the assessment of expenses or inputs and outputs, stated in several tablets, the authoresses evaluate the abolition of MSS from a long-term view as rather ineffective, in spite of some short-time savings.

Methodically, presented study comes out of a book by Martin Potůček at al. Studying the Future as a Challenge. Its author offers a comprehensive characteristic of several fundamental challenges to social forecasting. It begins by defining forecasting as the formulation of conditional accounts of possible futures. The main forecasting theme to be solved are as follows: ageing Czech population as a security problem, corruption, criminality, organized crime as a tool of political and economy instability, the marginalization of Czech Armed Forces in context of globalization and overall European defence, possible threat of the collapse of Czech defence system.

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 author summarizes present-day knowledge of this problem. Worms and viruses have transformed to serious security challenges and perfect instruments of cyber espionage. They have become a tool in information warfare. Cyberattacks transformed to risks calling only for technical responses. The growing awareness of the seriousness of the cyber-threat is enhanced by incidents, e.g. the malware "Stuxnet" attacking the Iranian nuclear programme. Actually, cyber space is regarded as a fifth dimension of military deployment, apart for land, air, water, and cosmos. Some nations are already investing massively in cyber capabilities that can be used for military purposes. Most Western nations have considerably stepped up their defences in recent years and are forming special units for cyber warfare.

The material for his paper the author draws on his experience from work in Reconnaissance and Electronic Warfare Department. In light of historical consequences, the article briefly describes the development of mobile sets for geospatial support. The main focus was paid to currently used stations SOUMOP (O) and SGEOB. He also mentions presently developed prototype GeMoZ-C. The author would like to familiarise our reading public with activities of Czech Army Geographic Service, its tools and devices in use.

This article analyses a new element in the Czech criminal law-Military Bias Crimes. They are included in the new Criminal Code 40/2009 Coll., Sect. XII. The bias motive is characterized by a prejudice against race, ethnicity, nationality, political belief, religious belief or atheism, but not against the so-called sexual orientation, in contrast to the situation in the US. Perpetrators of some military bias crimes, § 378, § 379, § 380, can be not only soldiers, prisoners of war, but also members of security corps (Police, Security Intelligence Service etc.). Up to now, the use of these new norms of the Czech penal law has been limited.

American military strategy was preparing long before the US troops left Iraq. The published document reacted to circumstances after the end of Iraq conflict and planning withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014. Pentagton's analysis underlined the fact that in the following years, US forces would not conduct wars similar to Afghanistan and Iraq. Defence secretary Leon Panetta told reporters that American forces were going to be smaller but more effective, innovative and technologically advanced. In spite of budget cuts, military expenditures were planned larger in volume then in the last year of G. W. Bush's presidential term.

In the middle of Obama's first presidency, several waves of criticism turned up. According to some analysts, Barrack Obama's first presidency introduces the beginning of new world's era, the so-called "post-ethnical society". The latest discussions prove that the United States have been no longer the only world's superpower, they will remain in the position of world's leader, but still aregoing to substantionally influence global arrangement. Unsuccessful and protracted wars, reflecting serious economic depression with successive debts, effect military budget cuts, even though the American Armed forces are still powerful, potent and mighty power, all around the world, influencing word's events as a stabilising force. The study depicts political and security layout against American domestic political background.

Our new stance to comprehensive control of security in the international context is based upon the so-called "wider security concept". Despite various definitions,there is the consensus that a national state is not the only security subject, the classical paradigm was extended to other areas, outside military one: political, economy, financial, banking, environmental, and social. They are endorsed by security problems related to technology, energy, raw material sources, ethnical disputes, religion, together with humane rights and cultural aspects. To win the war is easy, to establish peace is difficult. Last but not least, we now have to fight and win the war of public opinion.

Armed forces, civilian employees, are extremely exposed to unwanted effects of socially undesirable behaviour, as they live and meet their assignments under difficult conditions, e.g. in mission abroad, separated from their relatives, spouses, wives. The best deterrence against socially undesirable behaviour is its prevention. Legally this problem is defined in the Defence Minister Order No 53/2010, The Prevention of Socially Undesirable Behaviour. According to the author M. Hrbata, Deputy Defence Minister for Personnel, we must deal with this problem in a multidisciplinary manner, in the frame of effective organizational structure, run by competent commanders, chiefs, directors, with natural authority.

In September 2011 the government approved the new Security Strategy of the Czech Republic. It was important that this document was discussed and elaborated with the participation of the security community, security professionals both from the army and civil institutions or schools; among others we must state the CEVRO institute or the CESES centre, Charles University Prague. The author familiarizes readers with its contents and the history of its genesis by means of polemics with individual items of this document. In addition to general statements, there should be concrete proposals, the authors supposes, for tangible precautions, which might help readers to comprehend proposed measures, and thus to open way to deeper understanding among wide public to security problems, i.e. impending threats and dangers.

This paper depicts the position of the Czech President as the head of state and the commander-in-chief of the Czech Armed Forces, including his special relation to Defence Minister who actually runs defence department. The President is superior to all members of armed forces of the Czech Republic; the Chief of General Staff is superior to all members of the Army of the Czech Republic.The President formally and officially controls all the military organizations in a country. But we have no tradition of independent of armed deployment in war conflicts. Our forces operated always as a part of higher multinational coalitions, in joined combined groupings, operationally subordinated to friendly, but alien highest command.

Potential improvements of our security system depend above all on the governmental concern to really implement the reform, as a complicated, laborious and sensitive process. The preparing work being done in 2001-2002 proved deficiency in Czech security system. The author says that it is practicable to set rules by issuing clear directives, further it is necessary to prevent unreasoned manoeuvring within boundaries of implementation programmes, whatever manoeuvring could be motivated, by political, local, regional or subjective interests. This essay places emphasis on the presentation of various methods by which the security system could be changed for the better, explaining them in rather non-traditional ways, from more broad angle, embedded into a wide frame of knowledge, experiences and recommendations.

The article continues explanation basic operational terms, familiarizes readers with true theoretical fundamentals of the key element of operational design - the decisive point. Basic doctrinal interpretations are described and explained. Its introduction and utilization is visible during the operational planning process and elaboration of operational design. The concept of decisive point has a close connection to the other concepts, namely lines of operations, the centre of gravity and the end state. The concept is further evolved via example of peace support military operation planning process. Key words: decisive points, decisive conditions, lines of operations, centre of gravity, effect, kinetic, nonkinetic operations, doctrine.

Government controls state executives by planning, i.e. a bureaucratic process providing sets of documents. Such plans ought to be feasible in an expecting resource environment. Approach and methods using for working out respective plans are supposed to be conforming to the purpose. In order to be realistic, a financial plan, a budget, should cope with environment of increasing and decreasing prices and exchange rates. This essay, as a case study, deals with the issue of adapting of the short and medium-term planes working out by the Czech MoD for purpose of programming, budgeting and purchasing. The case study shows that generally there is a long-run lack of interest in adapting of such planes to an environment of changing prices and volatile exchange rates.

Czech dailies and weeklies publicised their analyses of the diplomatic dispatches released by WikiLeaks. Some were concerned in world's politics, but higher attention was paid to 1,271 dispatches from Prague. According to the dispatches, the U.S. Navy wanted to purchase 23 Russian anti-ship missiles to obtain the weapons from Belarus through Ukraine, with a Czech arms dealer. However, the Czech government decided to derail the plan by not granting the Czech middleman the needed permission to export weapons from a dictatorship like Belarus. Various cables also detailed a dispute in the area of arms technology. Some observations from the dispatches dealing with characteristics of Czech prominent politicians are amusing. Overall, the United States evaluated the CzechRepublic positively, as an economically mature country and as an ally.

The paper offers new looks at the system of railroad reconstruction in crisis and emergency situations. It originates from The Operational Plan of State Territory Preparation that is implemented in harmony with The Plan of Technology Protection of Railroad. This article is a free sequel to information published in this Military Revue No. 4/2005 dealing with drafting the plan of railroad technology protection. The authors´ main purpose is to give readers basic knowledge on key changes in railroad security system and main security measurements till 2013. The protection system is intended to be more flexible and economic.

People commonly imagine terrorist attack as hijacking or improvised explosive device hidden in crowded place. However terrorists can also attack against food, cattle, farm crops or water resources. These kinds of attacks can be ranked among agroterrorism or food terrorism, whereas agroterrorists attack against cattle, farm crops or water resources; food terrorists attack against foodstuffs. This paper is intended to provide information about agroterrorism and food terrorism as possible forms of wilful violence. Food security became discussed issue especially after anthrax incidents in 2001. There are many authorities that deal with these issues, for example EU, NATO or World Health Organization.

One of most discussed themes in this field is also a critique of unfinished, non-stable structure of master documents, e.g. Security Strategy of the Czech Republic. They are often told to be obsolete. The latest document, the White Paper on Defence, Critical responses are not quite justified. There are a lot of good ideas, innovations. Many things have been done, many set tasks have been met at the level of Defence Ministry. Positive effects of results reached are obvious. They are summarized in the White Paper mentioned above. The only danger lies in arbitrary decisions by political management, including employing variable means of their implementation, wanton interpretation of leading defence principles, low respect to approved strategical decisions. We must name mentioned handicaps as a first step towards the real and true remedy.

The new book by historian František Hanzlík "Without Mercy and Compassion" deals with a prominent actor of the Czechoslovak People's Army and the Communist Party. His personality unites anti-Nazi fight in Soviet Russia, communist coup d'état in February 1948, monstrous political trials. He reached the height of career when he became Deputy Defence Minister and aspired to the position of Defence Minister. But in 1950, when Czech president's son-in-law Alexej Čepička held this office, his rapid decline began. In a sense, it was the start of his end.

Taking into account the prepared 2011 Security Strategy and the White Paper on Defence in our country, due attention ought to be paid to political ambitions and economy influence of emerging actors, both world and regional. In ten or twenty years to come we shall face basic transformation of international system. Today, there are four main global power centres: North America (United States, Canada), the European Union, China and Japan. The author of this study concentrates predominantly on their economy strength that is also a base of all sources spent on armed forces. Among emerging powers belongs above all India, regional power in South Asia, Brazil in Latin America, followed by Indonesia, Turkey, and Mexico. They together cover 52 per cent of word's economy production. Different interests give rise to various disputes, but they are able to act cohesively against e.g. decisions by G-20. Among other's the article is accompanied by the table comparing military powers of the USA and Russia.

The article deals with the problem of a certain militarization of a society, supposing country's military establishment is expanding its scope of activities to government or economy. From this point of view, the military and their civilian counterparts could be seen as "imperium in imperio" and such a model of military as a state within a state. There are a military-governmental complex and a military-industrial one in each state and both ought to be under civilian authorities' control, in order to prevent the democratic state from being fallen under influence of this complex. Although the notion was sketched more than fifty years ago, the military-industrial complex theory has been still living, and author gives some examples of the evolution of military-governmental and military-industrial complex.

The purpose of this analysis is to trace contemporary position of recent war veterans, members of missions abroad after 1989 after they retired. Above it concentrates on their problem on home labour market, eventually on psychic disorders, negative after-effects or syndromes, possible assistance and support on the part of state, eventually of Czech Ministry of Defence. The article is divided into two parts. The first one analyses accessible statistical data concerning participants in foreign missions and at the same time collected data serve for drafting hypothesis tied with a research segment of this paper. The second part of this study evaluates results reached, based upon anonymous questionnaires completed by retired new war veterans in the period from December 4, 2009, till January 25, 2010

The thing that authors regard as most important and that needs attention before anything else is the modernization of logistics in the Czech armed forces, as well as within the whole Sector of Defence, as we are facing now the topical problem-decreasing amount of financial resources from defence budget. This decrease has been enforcing logistics to find new and non-traditional approaches and ways how to solve tasks related to material and technical support. This article is aimed at the description of undertaken measures in the performance of logistics tasks in 2011 and following years. The conception and vision of the Czech Armed Forces future, including its logistics, should be involved in the White Defence Paper. The specification of the targets and the abilities in bigger detail will is involved in the White Paper on Defence.

Nowadays, with the potential employment of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Explosives (CBRNE), terrorism poses a threat to all countries over the world, it becomes scary phenomenon at a global scale. The author introduces key agreements dealing with this subject: Chemical Weapons Convention, European Agreement concerning the international carriage of Dangerous goods by Road, European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways, Regulations concerning the International carriage of Dangerous Goods by rail, and so on. The main objective of the EU is to introduce such legal measures so that it would be extremely difficult for terrorist groups to legally gain CBRNE materials. The purpose of this essay is to analyse legal frame of CBRNE materials and to stress the protection against their misusing within an authority of the ACR.

Officially, we barred authorities from discriminating against people because of their race or gender. Women's rights guarantee that women will not face discrimination on the basis of their sex. The Armed Forces have opened up traditionally male roles to female recruits, but it became apparent that many women did not possess the strength necessary for their work. In military practice, some problems have arisen: especially during hard military drill and training. Injuries among female army personnel are increasing; they are several times higher than among male personnel. In author's opinion, this 'gender fair' policy has to be changedto a policy respecting gender differences. Even though in some cases physicalfitness both servicemen and servicewomen are identical, the tables of comparison M/F physical capabilities confirms and quantifies the excess risk for women when they undertake the same arduous training as male soldiers, and highlights the conflict between health and safety legislation and equal opportunities legislation.

The new American doctrinal document called National Security Strategy (NSS 2010) was released in May 2010. Generally, NSS documents outline major national security concerns and plans. The NSS 2010 lays out a strategic approach for advancing American interests, including the security of the American people, growing U.S. economy, and international order that can address 21st century challenges. President Obama is stressing global leadership, dependent on strong and responsible American leadership directing it to ensure other nations follow. He urged Americans to revitalize their own economic, moral and innovative strength to continue to lead the world. The essay by Mr. Eichler is divided into two parts: first one deals with Bush's security policy, and second one deals with documents issued during Obama's presidency. There is a departure from Bush's security strategy that had led to two asymmetric wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are interesting nuances. The NSS 2010 for example declares the intention to build deeper and more effective partnerships with key centres of influence-including China, India, which represents among others Obama's retreat from policy of unilateralism.

The NATO's New Strategic Concept is only starting point to open discussion on a wide range of security problems. At the beginning there is a description of Czech home politics, attitudes of Czech political parties toward NATO alliance. The author explores the history of NATO's identity crisis. In recent years, different security optics of the members splintered NATO. The US wants an expeditionary alliance with a global reach, the Western Europeans hold to a vision of a regional club of liberal democracies, the Central Europeans have a wish so that Washington would stand by them when they will find themselves pressured by Russia. NATO is divided on how to reform its decision-making processes and how to fund and resource its home and away missions. In Afghanistan, the Alliance faces the most difficult operational challenge to date, with a real possibility of strategic failure. The overarching problem is how to define the core business of NATO: cyber defence, energy security, WMD proliferation, stability and reconstruction missions, out-of-area missions, territorial security, enlargement, partnership-building. The discussion over the New Strategic Concept needs to reorder the question how to define NATO's appropriate roles and go from there.

The article presents six more or less structured analytical methods that are or could be employed in intelligence analysis. This type of analysis, one part of the intelligence cycle, is understood as "the process of evaluating data for reliability, validity, and relevance; integrating and analysing it; converting the product of this effort into a meaningful whole, which includes assessment of events and implications of the information collected". The set of presented methods includes: link analysis, opportunity analysis, analogy, linchpin analysis, analysis of competing hypothesis and alternative scenarios. The study doesn't stop with presenting those methods; it also explains which type of reasoning (inductive, deductive or abductive) is used when working with each particular method. In broad terms, the article tries to shed light on intelligence analysis and its specifics. The reader should obtain better understanding their usefulness in the daily work of intelligence analyst.