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In 2018, it has been already ten years since one of the major wars of the post-Cold War period, namely, the war between Georgia and the Russian Federation. This war lasted only for five days, but it also became an important milestone in the development of the international security relations as well as the military science at the beginning of the 21^st century. The article evaluates its geopolitical framework on the basis of the neorealist theory of the balance of security threats and it also deals with its impact on the development of the Russian military.

The article is devoted to the draft law on defence financing, which aims to oblige the government to allocate an amount of at least 2% of GDP to defence in every draft law on the state budget. During the inter-ministerial comment procedure, the Supreme Audit Office expressed doubts whether the draft means anything more than an unenforceable political commitment in relation to the Chamber of Deputies". The article convincingly demonstrates, with the help of legal argumentation and interpretation of the Constitution of the Czech Republic, the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies, as well as the established case law of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, that if approved, the Chamber of Deputies will also be bound by the Defence Financing Act when approving the state budget. To do otherwise would violate constitutionality.

Human capital refers to the stock of skills and knowledge embodied in the ability to perform labor so as to produce economic value. The article deals with a practical application of this theory into armed forces. The core of its application is wage motivation of a soldier to leave military service if his/her salary is not increasing. The problem is explained by comparison between the age structure of UK Army and Czech Armed Forces. The age structure of UK Army is shaped by the career scheme selecting majority of soldiers out of service before their age of 40. By way of this selection, labour cost is automatically optimised. It is a proof of impact of human capital theory on armed forces that is usually ignored in Czech Forces. The author hopes that poor economic situation in our country ironically helps to optimise Czech army structure.

The article contributes to a more efficient use of the theoretical, technological and application base, especially to the improvement of decision-making processes at the strategic level. It offers a methodological framework for solving the armed forces capability optimization problem by implementing modeling, simulation and operations research tools and theories.

This study presents the perspective of Czechoslovak diplomacy on the events of the Yom Kippur War (1973) in the context Czechoslovak foreign policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict in early 1970s. The research is based on so far rather underexplored archival sources. Despite Czechoslovakia's declared unequivocal support for the Arab side of the conflict, Czechoslovak Middle Eastern policy since the mid-1950s was not entirely unconditional in relation to the Arab countries. Internal documents of Czechoslovak government occasionally revealed criticisms of Arab representatives. The Yom Kippur War represented a significant moment in this regard, as it was a military confrontation initiated not by Israel but by the Arab coalition, posing a challenge for Czechoslovak propaganda. Simultaneously, this armed conflict presented an opportunity for Communist Czechoslovakia to further deepen its relations with its Arab allies.

The article describes attributes will influence character of modern warfighting and presents the basic approach to prepare commanders and leaders of "new generation". The operational environment describes determinants and characteristic of today's and future warfighting. Technological development as booster, change the tools and the procedures but not the nature of war. Level of training and leadership quality multiplies combat power. The key findings and recommendations support fundamental idea of ability to lead and manage hybrid systems in volatile multi-dimensional environment, using various tools and sources, appropriate to specific environment and specific tactical level mission, stressed in last chapter as result of this study. The article´s aim is support discussion, which directions we will adapt currently ongoing or newly creating study programs, preparing new generation of warriors - leaders.

This paper assesses the information war in Ukraine in the context of the military strategy. An influence of the information operation (disinformation and deception) presents the strategic tool. The author pragmatically analyses the information war from the military art perspectives and as a part of the strategy used for support of the combat operations. He identifies phases of the information war in the context of the war. The author expects and confirms the opinion that the information war is led by both external actors (the USA and the Russian Federation). Their top representatives are involving in the information war because they support their own interests. This paper has been written as a neo-realist case study. The balance of power concept is in accordance with the used theory, as well as with the key interests of the external actors.

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 aim of this article is to define leadership as a process required in the Czech Armed Forces. To this end, the nature of military leadership is first identified by analyzing similarities and differences of the widely accepted theoretical concepts (schools) of leadership, including approaches used in selected alliance armed forces. Based on the current state of affairs analysis, the components of leadership and the relationship among them are identified, as well as general conditions for their application. In accordance with the knowledge gained, a general leadership model of the Army of the Czech Republic is proposed.

The article deals with the preparation of the Active Reserve of Czech Armed Forces, territorial forces in detail. It compares them to the equivalent of the active reserves of the Polish army, namely the Territorial Defense troops. A comparison of the development and preparation of these forces points to the necessity of solving or updating the system of calling up reserves of the Czech Armed Forces, their training, arming and equipping.

Leadership and its styles have been in the spotlight for many years. The changing military environment and demands on army readiness bring new questions and perspectives to leadership. Leaders now face constant changes and specifications of the new modern era. Concerning these changes and transformations in society and the Army, there are new demands on soldiers and leaders at all levels of the Army of the Czech Republic. This paper provides insight and muse about both transactional and transformational leadership styles and investigates an approach to these styles by Czech military students. This paper aims to identify what leadership style Czech military students prefer at the University of Defence. This research focused on evaluating the personal characteristics required for a leadership position. To verify the relevance of the gained results, we employed paired t-test.

The main goal of this article is to depict the role of postcolonial theory of neo-colonialism in the development of the security situation in Afghanistan. The introductory part is devoted to defining the postcolonial approach. This part is followed by a definition of neo-colonialism as a modern form of continuation of colonialism. The next part is focused on the role of neo-colonialism itself in Afghanistan, in relation to the influence and interests of the USA. In addition, the paper outlines the main security implications as well as the distortions of Afghanistan's regional actors (Pakistan and India) as a result of US engagement in the region. The final part summarizes the essential information in the context of the theoretical requirements and signs of neo-colonialism in relation to the activities of the US and other state actors in Afghanistan and the region.

The article deals with some aspects of applied theory of operational art within the operations planning process. It discusses the area of operational design concepts and suggests possible ways of this theory application in the process of operational approach development. The described theory is a sequel to the article published in this Military Review No. 1/2014.

The article deals with aspects of operational art inside the operations planning process. It deals with the concepts of operational design and suggests a possible way of introducing such theory into the development process of operational approach. This paper is a free sequel to several articles published in Military Review on this theme. It introduces several professional terms in the field of operational art, up to now not officially established.

Increasing pressure on the quality of the educational content brings the need to address the issue of hidden mechanisms in the educational process that have impacts on the quality of knowledge and skills. This article discusses the existence of the hidden curriculum in lifelong learning and puts it into the context of the lifelong Professional Military Education as it is provided at the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies at the University of Defence. The uncovering of the hidden content in education may not be a welcome process, in extreme it may become unacceptable. However, hidden content can affect the achieved learning outcomes, as well as their deliberate disclosure and appropriate processing. The aim of the article is to describe whether and with what benefit can the concept of the hidden curriculum be applied to professional military education in the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies environment .

The article deals with the issue of the cognitive pyramid and the possible use of intelligence analysis in the context of gaining the understanding and wisdom of users of information using this pyramid. The cognitive pyramid is used to define the terms date, information, knowledge, understanding and wisdom that make up the various levels of the pyramid. The paper attempts to discuss concepts in different models of the pyramid. It briefly describes intelligence in the context of the use of intelligence by means of a cognitive pyramid. Intelligence is a special kind of knowledge. This article also seeks to explore how intelligence creation can be explained using a cognitive analytical pyramid model.

The book Paradigms of Military Tactics, compiled by Pavel Zůna, deals with the principles of fighting at the tactical level on more than 300 pages.

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 paper demonstrates that the Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) is one very useful analytical tool and method to help Allied political decision makers and military strategists to rethink the Alliance's new role and mission in Africa, as the Southern neighbour of NATO and the EU having great possibilities to influence, either positively or negatively, the European and Euro-Atlantic security. Thus, the paper's scope is to use MCA in order to highlight the importance of Africa for NATO's Geopolitics and what Member States should undertake in order to join the competitive North African and Sahel region's arms and presence race against the increased Russian and Chinese economic and military interests.

This paper deals with teaching of operations research at University of Defence and its support by means of using selected software for linear programming. The main aim of the paper is to demonstrate possibilities of using the add-in program Solver in Microsoft Excel and Linear Program Solver in teaching operations research via solving an illustrative example of linear programming problem. The paper further introduces operations research as a scientific discipline and a course taught at University of Defence. Last but not least, it discusses advantages and drawbacks of introducing software into teaching of operations research.

The article aims to identify the dependence of military expenditures and selected economic determinants on the example of the V4 countries in the years 1999-2020. The following are selected as economic determinants: the size of the gross domestic product, the rate of inflation, the debt and deficit of the government sector and unemployment. Correlation analysis proved the expected relationship between the gross domestic product and the military expenditure of Hungary and especially Poland. The relationship between military spending and unemployment was confirmed for Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, the expected relationship between military spending and government debt for the Czech Republic. The linear regression model confirmed the positive effect of the gross domestic product on military expenditure in the case of Poland, the effect of the increase in military expenditure due to rising inflation in Hungary and the negative effect of increasing state indebtedness in the case of the Czech Republic. At the same time, the results did not confirm the uniformity of the factors affecting the size of the military factors in the analyzed V4 countries.

The article analyses the process of the NATO enlargement after 1990. It starts by a detailed analysis of the secret negotiations which have been started just after the end of the Cold War. In the light of the institutional liberalism, the NATO enlargement is a positive process which satisfied especially new member states. But in the light of the American neorealism, this process resulted into profound changes in the balance of the security threats and into a large militarisation and tension at the new Eastern frontier of NATO in a direct neighbourhood with the Russia. New military units with the modern arms systems are deployed over there and we are witnessing a growing number of dangerous military incidents. As a result, the contemporary situation needs new political negotiations between two competitors and a shift from the contemporary negative Peace towards the positive Peace.

The war in Ukraine has become a global issue that has been closely monitored and evaluated by military experts and the media since its beginning. The aim of this article is to point out some specific aspects of the development of the conflict in Ukraine in its initial stages. In the beginning of the article, the author deals with the surprising development of the so-called "special military operation", leading to a change in Russia's original plans. In the following parts, he discusses the way the forces of the warring parties are used in individual domains, applies the principles of warfare and discusses the possible causes of the operational failure of the Russian military forces. The article mainly uses data from open sources. Analysis, comparison, deduction and synthesis were used in its compilation. The overall intention of the author is to offer readers one possible view of the ongoing conflict and to motivate them to think about the nature and character of war.

The text is reaction to disputation between Lubos Dobrovsky and Jan Eichler in Vojenské rozhledy magazine, which was dealing with limits and inappropriate of neoliberal approach to analysis of military-security situation in post-soviet space from Czech point of view. Text tries to point out, that neorealistic approach, which focuses on material source of power, inevitably deals with ideas as well. Therefore, Ted Hopf´s approach, whcih combines attention to material power and ideas, is introduced.

The article deals with the mental strain, as subjectively perceived by Czech soldiers and their families in the course of and after return from international missions. The research part was processed based on nine in-depth interviews with soldiers with different experiences from foreign missions. The data were processed with the help of grounded theory. The results showed that the involvement in missions is mainly positively assessed, primarily thanks to professional development. The operations bring specific stressors; additionally to critical situations, there is primarily the stress related to separation from the family and the cabin fever. The soldiers cope with the stressors thanks to the contact with their families, thanks to a good team, leisure time activities and support from the chaplain or the psychologist. The duration of the adaptation stage after the mission varies very much. It includes problems with restoring contact with the children and adapting to routine life, as well as the envy of surrounding people, considered by the soldiers a "Czech particularity", caused by low positive publicity of the Czech army.

The goal of this review article is to briefly describe the development trends in the conceptualization of the phenomenon of hybrid warfare and to try a basic comparison of the key features of twenty important concepts with emphasis on selected Western, Russian and Chinese theoretical concepts. A substantial part of the article also deals with a closer characterization of hybrid warfare with the intention of clarifying the possible relationship of this type of warfare to the activities of the Czech Armed Forces. In connection with the importance of hybrid warfare and hybrid threats, the article is supplemented with essential recommendations that the Czech Republic and the Czech Armed Forces should reflect. The emphasis on content and the above arguments confirm that looking at the phenomenon of hybrid action and warfare as a novelty is very debatable. Rather than a new concept of warfare, it is a newly accentuated term "hybrid" describing long-known combinations of power tools used.

The article is a creative elaboration and proposal for optimization of selected activities of the human resources management process in the Ministry of Defense, which have a fundamental influence on achieving the set goals of personnel policy of the Ministry of Defense. The article builds on the analysis of the "status quo" of the human resource management in the Ministry of Defense, carried out with the help of dimensional and stakeholder analysis, sector analysis PESTLE-M, and questionnaire survey with a sample of officers (students of career courses KVD and KGŠ). It also uses the results of capability-based scenario, on which a prediction of the future needs of personnel and financial resources is calculated and demonstrated. For selected activities of the human resources management process their possible content is discussed, as well as the effects (or the necessity to set them accordingly) of internal and external process controllers.

The article deals with some military consequences of the departure of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union (Brexit). To assess the potential impacts on defence and security of EU, a structured approach involving several methods was used in the analysis, which combines a search of professional publications, factors sensitivity analysis and testing of hypotheses. Based on the analysis, it was evaluated that the departure of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the structures of the European Union will take place without significant impact in the military field and does not pose an immediate threat to the security and defence of EU member states. Nevertheless, in connection with Brexit, there is still a certain risk of negative impacts in this area.

The article deals with the artillery manual gunnery in accordance with the modernization of the czech artillery. The article describes the results of research aimed at innovating manual (alternative) methods of determining the firing data so that they are applicable on the contemporary battlefield and are compatible with the nature of the data used by artillery within the NATO. The issue of the article is aimed primarily at determining the firing data by the use of meteorological techniques, while presenting the outputs of a comparative analysis of procedures used in the czech artillery with the procedures applied by the US army. The main contribution of the article is a critical evaluation of the approaches of both armies and a proposal for innovation of existing procedures so that the most beneficial requirements are applied and negatives are eliminated.

This paper is devoted to the role of a periodical Vojenská mysl in the reform of Czechoslovak "1968". There were various contributions on its pages, which criticized the lack of the Czechoslovak military doctrine. The corn of criticism was also aimed at non-systemic arrangements based on Soviet pressures in the area of diplomacy and military policy. Vojenská mysl reflected carefully the general process of democratization, which influenced the daily life in the Czechoslovakian army. The democratization required involvement of scientific base in military affaires, a long with better use of personnel capacity in the military.