Fulltext search in archive

At first, in 1918, the new Czech Republic took over Military Territorial Authorities from the former Austro-Hungarian empire. In 1920 the net of 48 regional Are We Able to Govern at Strategical Level? by PhDr. Antonín Rašek. This is the question asked by the book "Strategical Governance and the Czech Republic", published by the Centre of Social and Economic Strategies, Social Science Faculty, Charles University Prague, in which also the Centre for Security Policy participates. The opening sentence says that humankind is not able to control itself. The team of authors guide us through individual items dealing with world's political and economy situations, plans for economy growth, security and defence concepts, forming supranational security structures and finally towards depressing destiny of adopted strategy concepts and plans. If Czech leadership has any deficiency, then it is a lack of strategical dimension, concludes the reviewer.

The essay summarizes several articles published in Vojenské rozhledy dealing with mass media and its activities during armed conflicts or peace-support operations. In fact, more attention to war information is paid by civilian press or books. The author, PhDr. Antonín Rašek (-ar-) cites e.g. English sociologist D. Hallin The 'The Uncensored War', D. Kellner The Persian Gulf TV War, and some books or reportages by Czech journalists and authors, K. Hvižďala, P. Procházková, V. Bělohradský, T. Halík, etc. The Vietnam War was the first televised war and it was largely uncensored. People saw the true horror of war on their television screens night after night, and that caused them to turn against the war. The media seems to be influencing the direction of government policy; the American military always claimed the media caused the war to be lost. But today, namely during the wars in Iraq, the media are blamed to be too subordinated to official policy, they present "a war of choice as a war of necessity". "Abedded" journalists and stringers sell war stories and information, their primary purpose is to make money. An example of the strict control of war information is Chechnya, closed for independent journalists and the only information available is released through official information's agencies, both Russian and opposing Chechen forces.

This piece of writing is a polemic with the article by Maj. Pernica "System of Planning, Programming, Budgeting (and Flogging a Dead Horse)? in Vojenské rozhledy 4/2005. Allegedly, the criticized article quoted some misleading statements, based on financial records, inappropriate for this purpose. Ing. Dušek does not agree with its general idea, introduced out of contexts. The Planning, Programming and Budgeting System was introduced by leading economy experts (e.g. university professor Mr. Ochrana, School of Economy, Prague). Some deficiencies and shortages are inevitable, but as a whole, the PPB system works. Statistics is a dynamic science and statistical data are to be judged only in connection with statistical methods used in years in concern. For example, in answering the Defence Planning Questionnaire, we were asked by NATO authorities to transfer entries for leasing Grippen aircrafts from modernization and development items to the operational item. Consequently, the percentage of investment purchases decreased. The same goes for the percentages of National Gross Domestic Product spent for military budget, and so on. Moreover, MoD financial department put several useful proposals how to make financial flows more clear, but the were refused by the government.

In recent history, German armed forces have been transformed into a modern, international recognized force, so has its logistics. Readiness became a major issue and soldiers suddenly had to be prepared for a broad variety of international missions, predictably supported by military logistics that newly cooperates with a private sector. The main logistics control and management centre is situated in the port city Wilhelmshaven. The Centre is responsible for planning logistics operations, their coordination both home and abroad. The newly created department for supply chain management is going to streamline supplies, to increase efficiency of the whole supply process. By means of several schemes the authors explain flows of materiel and supply routes tied with civilian companies (e.g. HIL GmbH).

The basic question of Army transformation was the fact that it was not constituted upon the statehood principle that gives precedence to politicking individual parties. The ultimate goal of this transformation was to build forces loyal to democratic republic, but during the last ten years the top personnel at the Ministry of Defence changed several times, leaving the Army with restricted means, without precise laid down tasks and goals. Uncontrolled interventions into forces structure, reducing numbers of military personnel, lead to balance on the verge of collapse. The basic goal to develop Czech national security and defence policies did not fell short. Army was transforming itself, initially under the management of former generals and later under civilian control, especially after 1991. The division of the armed forces after the split-up of the state at the turn of 1992 went very smoothly, with good discipline. The transformation has been influenced above all by the newly adopted legislation, accession to NATO and to the European Union, participation in missions abroad and professionalization of the Czech armed forces. The whole process has been facilitated by the acceptance and implementation of a broader concept of security.

After forming Czechoslovak military units abroad he served in Egypt, where he was engaged in the battle of Tobruk, a lengthy confrontation between Axis and Allied forces in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II. He went through higher training in Scotland, after the Allied invasion of Normandy he took part in the siege of Dunkerque harbour where 12,000 German soldiers of Wehrmacht were concentrated. In 1945, in the rank of Staff Captain, he became career soldier in military judicial service. After communist coup d'etat he was suspended, stripped of honours, degraded from the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to the rank of retired Private. The Velvet Revolution brought him rehabilitation, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel. Among others, in 2005 he was awarded the French Legion of Honour.

Effective operations of institutions within public sector presuppose obtain necessary knowledge how those institutions operate in the scope of their responsibility. Collected data could be used for making use in higher levels of command and control. The data might be acquired via the audit of activities of examined institution. This study tries to outline main basic steps how to accomplish the audit of institutional activities with the stress on a level of administration and management. By definition, audit is inspection and verification of the accuracy of financial records and statements. Internal audits are conducted by a company's own personnel to uncover bookkeeping errors and also to check costeffectiveness of labour. An external audit is used to give the public a true statement of an institution's financial position. The auditors inspect real estate, buildings, and other assets to see if their value is overstated.

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

The author discusses the issues surrounding the construction of modern logistic support for the Czech Army as it transforms from a conscript to an all professional force of agile, light forces, with high reliability and low support requirements. The basic philosophy is to create comprehensive system that would offer complex service for a commander in the field of materiel, technology and medical services. The logistics reform must be supported by enhancing communication systems (Information Logistics System) and by seeking the ways of rationale savings, to reach the highest level of compatibility with logistics systems of other NATO nations. "Time Based Competition" and "Time Compression" must be accepted at all levels of logistics system both in peace and field conditions. In the future, the security problems will be managed more by civilian means than by hard force. The goals will be political, economical and cultural. Those changing threats will ask logistic support to be more flexible, mobile, integrated, compact and precise.

The author discusses the issues surrounding the construction of modern logistic support for the Czech Army as it transforms from a conscript to an all professional force of agile, light forces, with high reliability and low support requirements. The basic philosophy is to create comprehensive system that would offer complex service for a commander in the field of materiel, technology and medical services. The logistics reform must be supported by enhancing communication systems (Information Logistics System) and by seeking the ways of rationale savings, to reach the highest level of compatibility with logistics systems of other NATO nations. "Time Based Competition" and "Time Compression" must be accepted at all levels of logistics system both in peace and field conditions. In the future, the security problems will be managed more by civilian means than by hard force. The goals will be political, economical and cultural. Those changing threats will ask logistic support to be more flexible, mobile, integrated, compact and precise.

In Czechoslovakia, the "labour camps" came into existence under the Act 247 of October 25, 1948. They were camps for those who had not committed any crime, but ought to have been isolated from other civilian public. The sentences: "... the said person has no positive attitude to current regime" or "shows no interest in joining the Communist Party" constituted the reasons for 10 to 24 months of imprisonment. "Offenders" were not sent to labour camps by courts, but only under the prescription issued by "prescription committee", at the level of local and regional "national authorities". A total of 23,000 people went through those camps, as a cheap labour force, taken from among "class enemies". The special position among those camps had military camp of hard labour Mírov, designated for the former commissioned and warrant officers who fought during WWII not only on western but also on eastern fronts. In 1949-1950, there were six roundups (Action D) in which the former "bourgeois" officers were arrested by mixed teams of State Security and Military Intelligence guards; in fact, many times even in the contradiction with the then effective laws and regulations.

In October 2008, under the auspices of the First Deputy Chief of the ACR General Staff Maj.Gen. Josef Prokš and Col. Jiří Gajdoš, Chief of Czech Armed Forces Chemical Corps, 3rd International CBRN Commandant and Commanders Conference took place in Liberec, dealing with the CBRN threats and variants of protection against them. The Conference was organized by Force Development Division-Operations Section Chemical Corps Department in cooperation with Centre of Excellence in Vyškov, 31st CBRN brigade in Liberec, NBC Defence Institute in Vyškov, Centre of Biological Protection at Těchonín, Chemical Corps Department of Joint Forces in Olomouc, Czech NBC Team, and last but not least VOP-026 in Šternberk. The conference was regarded as a meeting of heads of chemical corps both NATO nations and friendly countries. Further information: Pavel.Otrisal@unob.cz.

Physical condition and nutritional state of soldiers were monitored among members of KFOR mission by means of anthropometrical measurement of physical changes, defined above all by the so-called Mass Body Index, metabolic exchanges, and contents of fat in a body. The evaluation was done in picked-up clusters, formed on the base of physical activities of personnel. Verifying was carried out by means of the Wilcoxon test, non-parametric statistical test for the case of two related samples or repeated measurements on a single sample. The test involves comparisons of differences between measurements; the null hypothesis is specified. The alternative hypothesis assumes clusters, different in physical characteristics, with notable statistical differences. Among other results, in 2005, 57.10 per cent of military personnel between 25-35 years were overweight.

It is evident that Barack Obama diverges from Bush's pre-emptive strategy. There are changes in style and contents. Obama begins to direct American policy more towards diplomatic negotiations instead underlining military strength. It is evident namely in proposed negotiations with Iran and in case of Russia, where he wants to overcome cooling down after Russia-Georgia clashes and gas crisis. He insists on avoiding unnecessary conflicts and puts stress on good relations with allies and building new partnerships. He is going to withdraw soldiers from Iraq and in spite of problems in Afghanistan to reduce U.S. military budget. Even though Obama wants to maintain American world's leadership, there are some signs of partial changes in American foreign policy, e.g. his orientation towards Asia suggests first signs of multilateral approach of post-American era. The author also mentions the question of "American radar" in the Czech Republic, the fate of which depends on Iran's nuclear power programme.

Like hundreds of millions of other people, Islamic terrorists and their supporters use the Internet. In many ways, the Internet is a tool tailor-made for these Islamic extremists, who use it covertly and overtly to plan attacks, raise money, and spread anti-Semitic and anti-American propaganda written in English, Arabic, and other languages. There is sufficient information to believe that in the future, terrorists may even turn the Internet itself into a weapon, using it to wreak havoc on America's critical infrastructure. Because these militants are global, rather than being located in a single geographical area (Pakistan, Indonesia, Somalia, Iraq), the Internet provides them with a new and effective way to attain their goals. It may be difficult to catch extremists planning or coordinating an attack if they are using encryption, steganography, or some other method of hiding their online activities.

Backed by a heap of articles from the Western Press, author summarizes the recent conflict in the Caucasus. Georgia's position astride the western access route to the Caspian sea's energy reserves and Central Asia give it geopolitical significance. Moreover, Georgia represents exactly what Russia does not want to see on its borders: a country both independent and increasingly democratic. Russian government instead seeks submission, preferably by authoritarian rulers that it can manipulate. In summer 2008, Russia invaded South Ossetia, aimed at locking Georgia out of NATO. Moscow's military operation has far-reaching implications. To leaders in Ukraine and the Baltic states, it sends signals that it seeks to re-establish control in the former Soviet space. How should the West react? The author is a supporter of improving Russia's behaviour by mutual dialogues, negotiations. He sets an example: dispassionate, non-ideological talks between the former Soviet leader M. Gorbachev and an American president George Bush Sr.

The security is not very often mentioned in direct relation to the quality of life and sustainable development. The author introduces the security as their substantial element; he would like to offer an interesting approach towards examining mutual ties between both concepts. In fact, it is not a new idea; common knowledge that peace is more comfortable for life and culture, for economic development, is certainly older than quality of life concept. But, after an easygoing attitude to international background in the 90's, today we again pay our attention to the security problems, even in a wider spectrum, in varied contexts: from changes in world's climate, to differences between rich North and poor South, over international terrorism, efforts for integrated European position towards Common Foreign and Security Policy, NATO, security policy of the Czech Republic, till the individual feelings of safety.

The change of security situation in the world, international ties and last but not least changes in operational environment, exploitation of new technologies are reflected by changes in defence planning, military organization, forces engagement and operational assessment. Time, flexibility, cooperation in coalition operations, interoperability in technology spheres play incommutable roles together with trained personnel. Command and control (C2) is self-contained system depending on many factors provided by the so-called System of Communication and Information. At present it is the very base for information collection, decision-making process, preparing variants of operation for both commander and his staff. Among others the author writes about Network Enabled Capability system introduced into Czech armed forces. C2 programme is also a part of educational curriculum at Defence University Brno.

Many people in the world lead intolerably insecure lives. In many cases insecurity is the consequence of armed conflicts in which civilians are deliberately targeted, sometimes, their insecurity has natural causes, like earthquakes, hurricane, tsunami or disease, they suffer from famine. Security is a broader term, covering not only military threats. Human rather than nation-state security should be at the heart of European policy. Instead of defeating enemies or pacifying warring parties, EU missions should focus on protecting civilians, through law enforcement with the occasional use of force. EU member states ought to support a new framework for the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The following seven principles are underlined: (i) the primacy of Human Rights, (ii) clear political authority, (iii) multilateralism, (iv) a bottom-approach, (v) regional focus; (vi) the use of legal instruments, (vii) the appropriate use of force. In fact, underlines Mr. Karaffa, humane security concept forms the very base of common European culture and identity.

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

Evaluating offers of contestants for public contracts belong to key and critical moments of public tenders and the whole acquisition process at all. Variety and comprehensibility of numerical and rating methods shouldn't prevent applicants from understanding conditions and terms of contract/agreement. The transparency principle of evaluating is only slowly pushing forward in our legal system. We move from mere subjectivistic and unverifiable impressions to the unbiased comparing of best offers, together with the requirement of transparency, as a part of the process of comparing, ranking, and assessing offers, by the use of specific qualitative or quantitative factors, such as prices, feasibility, collateral risks, time plan or other conditions. The final step is called amalgamation, when we merge individual classifications in one complex appraisal.

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

There are anniversaries inviting us to stop to think about the last twenty years. In fact, this period covered the same time as the pre-war Republic had been in existence. The occupation Russian army was forced to withdraw, the first security and defence doctrine of the independent Federal Czech and Slovak Republic was implemented, armed forces changed their structures into brigade ones. We took part in the First Gulf, a total of 9,000 ex-career soldiers were legally rehabilitated. The former Czechoslovakia was divided into two republics. There were again and again reductions in numbers, budget cuts. In spite of difficulties, we joined the NATO alliance. Looking back is hindsight saying army bodies proved to be resistant, persistent in overcoming all problems. The article is an instrumental text preceding this theme issue focusing on history analyses of constitution of Czech security and defence after 1989. The author was the last Czechoslovak Chief of General Staff and the first Chief of General Staff of the Czech Republic.

This article begins with a theoretical discussion of the culminating point, for both the attack and defence. Key definitions and related concepts provided in Carl von Clausewitz's On War, Joint Publication 3-0, Doctrine for Joint Operations, and U.S. Army Field Manual 100-5, Operations, are discussed in detail. These sources provide many of the factors that can cause a force to reach culmination, and serve as a basis for understanding the difficulties involved in trying to determine the time and place of culmination. Other current factors attributing to culmination are discussed, and recommendations are offered to help operational commanders and planners to zero in on this elusive point. It is of the utmost importance that one's own, and the enemy's culminating point be identified with the highest possible degree of accuracy during the planning phase of a major operation or campaign.

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

The important part of the forces transformation deals with the problem reducing in numbers of officers, namely field officers and general corps in the Czechoslovak Armed Forces and lately the Army of the Czech Republic. The main cause of this reduction was new concept of military career, as before the transformation it used to be a lifelong profession. The downsizing started in 1990 and it ought to have been finished by the end of the first period of the Czech Armed Forces Reform, as of 2008/12/31/, but it appears that downsizing is endless. The author quotes figures concerning numbers of officers; several rank charts and tablets with corresponding NATO and Czech grades respectively are used to demonstrate veracity of his statements. According to Lt.Col. Pernica, the downsizing is going to continue but no one knows how many officers for the all-volunteer Czech armed forces will be enough.

The SALT agreements seem to be outdated, nonetheless the current discussion on the U.S. missile defence systems must be perceived in its complexity and theoretical framework, with AMB treaty as a cornerstone. The article suggests that ABM treaty and Interim Agreement, forming together the outcome of SALT negotiations, demonstrate that rational decisions are fully compatible with arms control system and realist approaches to the international relations. The author supposes that cooperation and mutual trust can be achieved through negotiations and perception of other participants. He also takes into account the impact of Soviet nuclear build-up in 1960s is and its consequences. The important conclusion can be derived from this fact: arms control should be expected more in times of military balance rather that the domination of one world's actor. Key words: disarmament, arms control, mutual assured destruction, and antiballistic missile systems.

This essay is based up ideas summarized in Huntington's famous book The Clash of Civilizations. According to Mr. Huntington, there are seven or eight world civilizations. The West is "unique"-but its values are not universal. World politics is entering a new phase, in which the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of international conflict will be cultural. The decline of the nation state from the conflicting pulls of tribalism and globalism, among others. The author of this essay introduces individual world's cultures and traces prognostic visions both from historical and topical point of view. He warns against intervening into civil wars, as we know very little about their cultural background which must be respected; our interventions might be disserviceable.

The article points out the altered role of intelligence and counterintelligence under the conditions of new security threats and relevant problems of intelligence analysis. Authors compare the theories of the orthodox and revisionist intelligence schools dealing with the detection of surprise attacks and finally outlines solutions related to the training of intelligence analytics. Orthodox views are as follows: surprising attacks are inevitable, such attacks will succeed as they are unpredictable, complex and sophisticated; reformists say that too much attention is paid to various failures, there are many cases in which intelligence prevention was successful. Threat analyses are very complicated; hints are not clear, ambiguous. New threats must be examined and eliminated with cooperation with other force branches, police, integrated rescue system, and others. Last but not least, there is indispensable role of preparation and schooling of intelligence officers.