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The article deals with ways to help soldiers with the integration into the labour market after leaving the military service. Its aim is to describe the current state of knowledge in conditions of the Czech defence department and methods of so called outplacement in selected European countries. Within the description of the current situation in the Czech Republic, the article focuses on the training of a professional soldier, retraining courses and other measures that are implemented. While processing the text, literature search, analysis of legislative and statistical documents and direct interviews with experts from the Ministry of Defence and other experts from foreign ministries and institutions of the defence department were applied. The article provides a summary of the pros and cons of preparation of soldier for a career in the civilian sector in the Czech Republic, and submits suggestions for improving the current situation.

The article deals with the justification for the incorporation of the management of the arms trade and trade in military material into military diplomacy. This is defined as a set of diplomatic activities executed by the representatives of a defence department, primarily focused on implementing the military and security interests of the state. The analysis results in the statement that arms trade management is applicable to the scope of military diplomacy, especially as military and security interests are typically pursued by the state in this type of diplomatic activity. The study also uncovers the relevance of the engagement of military diplomats as a special category of diplomatic representatives of the state in the field

The aim of the article is to compare foreign policy of G. W. Bush jr. and Barack Obama in terms of use of military force. Transition from ground operations to targeted killings is demonstrated on three military operations - Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Inherent Resolve. The shift from bombers to drones had several reasons, mainly changing features of the threat. Authors are asking questions why and how did change the US fight against global terrorism with respect to military technologies and how is this change reflected in US fight against the threat of Islamic state.

After several years of reducing of the Czech defence budget there is a reversal and the Czech MoD begins to manage the increased budget especially for Czech Armed Forces capability development. The Czech Armed Forces is for many years actively involved in the process sharing multi-national capabilities of NATO. Among the former activities such as Smart Defence and Connected Forces Initiative, is also initiative Framework Nations Concept. This article analyzes the overall framework of this initiative, direction and development of this concept.

The primary mission of commanders and staffs is a skillful realization of all measures related to preparation, planning, conduct and control of military operations. Ability to implement these measures originates from their professional knowledge of the theory of operational art and capability to execute it in practice. Based on a feedback from the courses participants, the authors of the article propose a set of measures which may contribute not only to improvement of the level of knowledge, skills and competences of military personal, but also to increase interest in the overall development of operational art in the Czech Armed Forces.

The motivation and professional values of soldiers involved in Other People's Wars is one of the most important knowledge necessary for effective command and control. Those were main reasons for an extensive questionnaire survey among soldiers, deployed in PRT ISAF in 2010-2011. One of the key topics was motivation to leave for Afghanistan, professional expectations and evaluations of external and internal environment of the mission. The purpose of this paper is to present the basic outlines of values of today's Czech soldiers, their professional motives and expectations. The results are interpreted in the context of Moskos' theory of the contradiction between institutional and occupational orientations of present armed forces and adapted to the actual social and political state of affairs.

The Russian armed forces are influenced by a new concept of possible armed conflict. At present, Russian forces are not preparing themselves to one massive conflict, as in the period of bi-polar world, but the main stress is put on power-projection, into the spheres of Russian interests, i. e. into post-soviet republics. The Russian armed forces ought to be able partake in three regional conflicts simultaneously. That's why organizational and technological changes are presently in motion. The acquisition of French first Mistral-class vessels is an organic part of this process. The theme is particularly topical in the context of the current Ukrainian crisis.

The article defines extremisms and terrorism as eventual destabilizing moments in society. The paper decomposes possible reasons and grounds of their manifestation, the authors point out that certain signs indicate the penetration of extremisms and terrorism into armed forces structures and civil service, by means of concrete persons. At the end they propose general rules and approaches to keep up this topical phenomenon of the present day.

The article deals with contemporary security situation in the Sinai Peninsula. Attention is paid to certain aspects that form the local negative trends in security developments and their mutual interconnection, as a part of social movements after the events of the so-called Arab Spring and the consequences of the Egyptian Lotus Revolution that have a cardinal influence for both the deployments of Egyptian Army and the security sector in this territory. The opening part of this article is a brief historical excursion into the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel that arranges the special status of the Sinai as a demilitarized area and the adjustment of social-economic reality of the Bedouin population performing decisive influence for described situation.

The article deals with particularly topical problem, the riots with ethnic background. The present situation is compared with history illustrations and with similar recent events abroad. Author's reflections and scenarios outline a variant of state failure and its institutions, with the exception of army. He identifies respective incoming risks, among others tied with the so-called Roma question. Actually, his hypothetical solutions are not backed by the current laws of the Czech Republic. The author comes to the conclusion that army deployment might be used only as an instrument of last resort, "ultima ratio".

The development of C2 theory and practice within force requires an interdisciplinary approach. Commanding army needs not only the familiarity with armed forces and warfare principles, but also the knowledge and understanding of the development of security and operational environments. It is the development of security and operational environments that directly affects the theoretical and doctrinal thinking, the approaches to armed forces employment to deal with contemporary and future crisis situations. This paper is an attempt to project some opinions on C2 issues from the sixties last century to the present. As there are two periods with dozens of common characteristics, we can find a number of similarities. This article aims to point them out.

The re-election of Barrack Obama implies that the President preferring political solutions to military ones will have remained for the next four years in the White House. As far U. S. strategy culture is concerned, without doubts American armed forces are going to be prepared to be modern, strong, agile and capable to meet the U.S. National Security strategy goals whatever and wherever they might be. Simultaneously, Obama´s programme for his second term presupposes to close down several military bases all around the world, together with reductions in the size of forces, manpower. Only the most important will be preserved. The further development will be therefore predestined by necessary quantitative reductions, but at the same time by qualitative updating American armed forces, and by the stress on power projection capabilities to take an active approach to counter any threats worldwide.

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.

This article illustrates the troubles encountered with development of the NRF. The NATO Response Force is a highly ready and technologically advanced force made up of land, air, sea and special operations forces components that the Alliance can deploy quickly wherever needed. The NRF is intended to be a transformational force that will not only be able to meet the security needs of NATO in 21st century but also serve as an agent of change whereby all the member nations of NATO will be able to bring capabilities, and concepts of operations into their national forces. Undoubtedly, the NRF will not provide a basis for solving all of complex challenges. But it does offer an opportunity for experimentation and testing-the essence of military transformation-and the forging of creative solutions. The views expressed in this assessment are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of NATO or EU.

This highly critical article, the author opens with a statement that 15 years of changes, implementation of rules, professional career advances do not fulfil expectations. The problem is more serious as the armed forces do not compete effectively in labour marked, with the implication of wasting public money (from defence budget). The whole situation is demonstrated on pay and career stratification of career officers and soldiers. Among others, in comparison with civil sector, military pays have low level of competitiveness. The article is supported by several graphs and tables.

Pacifism, opposition to war and other violence, is both organized political movement and individual ideology. Pacifism varies from a form that is absolute and doctrinal to a relative and more practical form. Absolute pacifists are against all wars and against violence in any form whatsoever; relative pacifists are selective of the wars and violence they oppose. Most absolute pacifists stress the immorality of the taking of one person's life by another person. The philosophy of pacifism has been propounded throughout history on grounds of morality, divine will, or economic and social utility. The probable impact of pacifist theories on the Armed Forces is discussed in this article, as service in our forces is set by the law and inner normative acts of the Ministry of Defence.

The philosophers describing the growth of humane society outline concepts that are not yet verified but if true, they would explain certain facts or phenomena. As those concepts are supported by various traditions, different criteria, different hypotheses are drawn from them. Among others, most influential political thinkers are Samuel P. Huntington, Francis Fukuyama, or Mr. and Mrs. Tofflers. Every level of civilisation corresponds to respective technology, knowledge of warfare. Current trends reflect the development of security situation, to which our state responds by respective army development. Although the current "Concept of Mobilization of Armed Forces of the Czech Republic" reacts to the newest trends of general development, the raise in military spending is anticipated only time of danger. The author warns against such idea. The forces must be constantly prepared, ready not to be struck by unexpected state of affairs; e.g. similar to that of the US in 1917.

The paper deals with cyber security, cyber defence and operations in cyber space. It follows earlier performed analysis of cyber defence tasks and proposes distribution of competencies among key players. The required capabilities are derived from tasks determined by legislation, NATO and EU commitments and earlier developed strategic and operational scenarios. Comparing required capabilities and an actual state, a solution harmonizing defence in cyber space with defence of the Czech Republic and ensuring the cyber space defence and integration cyber capabilities into common operations conducting is proposed.

The article discusses advanced aspects in urban operations for presumed military robotics applications. The rise of city population and increasing number of cities stands new treats for warfare. First part of the article reminds steep rise of population and populated urban areas, dangers for today's deployed troops are shortly discussed in the second part, outlining some features there. Results lead to a possible solution of upgrading combat-space awareness, multiplying firepower capacity and combat support. Two examples of Unmanned Ground Vehicles in next part present the possible way of future development and finally conclusion outlines required characteristics for these UGVs during urban operations.

Frozen conflict in Nagorno Karabakh has been representing a threat to the regional stability for the last two decades. Sudden escalation of violence in 2016, known as Four-Day War, spurred new discussions on factors influencing the territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. While adversaries explain the conflict as a reaction to military provocations or as a rally round the flag effect, this article explains the dynamics of the conflict through the influence of the third party - Russia. Russia considers the Caucasus to be its sphere of the influence and therefor aims to spread its control through strengthening strategic ties with both Armenia and Azerbaijan in order to prevent the West from projecting its power in the region. Russia's role of the superpower has therefor a vast influence on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict development.

The article focuses on confronting the Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah with Israel in the field of energy. The aim of the article is to analyse the importance of energy in strategy of movement Hezbollah generally and specifically in confronting with Israel and motives and methods of the energy strategy of the Hezbollah. The primary method of Hezbollah action is to use or threat of violence consisting in threatening to attack on the Israeli energy sector to defend Lebanese energy wealth and deter its enemy from production of gas and oil in the disputed waters of the eastern Mediterranean. The main motive of Hezbollah's activities is especially strengthening of stable energy supplies and Israel's accusations of aggressive energy policy towards Lebanon.

The paper deals with the ability of engineer units to provide engineer mobility support in combat operations. Based on the analysis of the results of structured interviews conducted with extensive amount of the Czech Armed Forces officers, and their generalization, were found discrepancies between the current and required state in the organizational structure of engineer units to provide effective mobility support, and requirements for engineer devices to support mobility in the Czech Armed Forces conditions were formulated. The aim of this article is to present recommendations for inclusion of different types of engineer devices into formed engineer formations for mobility support in relation to the tasks performed within engineer role of mobility support and determine recommendations for the further direction of research in this area.

The NATO common funding has already been used to finance common needs of the Alliance for 65 years and has contributed substantially to its readiness, cohesion and solidarity. A number of reform measures have been approved, and in most cases already implemented, over the period of last several years with the aim of more effective, economical, efficient a transparent use of NATO common funds and the introduction of modern financial management practices. NATO common funding is therefore a live and well-functioning system. Nevertheless, there is still a room for further improvements. The aim of this article is to describe the role of NATO common funding, its basic parameters and tools, its development in the past, and current and future challenges.

The article deals with the general considerations on the relationship between Public and Private Law and on the relationship of the Professional Soldiers Act (Act no. 221/1999 Coll., on Professional Soldiers) to other legal regulations. The contribution also defines and interprets certain terms (family, household/shared household, close person, child, spouse/partner) at which demonstrates the combination of both legislative branches. It attempts to demonstrate that the laws so called armed legislation, particularly the Professional Soldiers Act is not a world closed on itself, but rather an area that is a part of the unified legal system linked to a number of laws, including Private Law (especially to the CivilCode and Labour Code).

The issue of terrorism is becoming increasingly important on the level of social, economic, political and security. The threat of terrorism affects at the same time, societal and cultural events. Professional and academic discussion addresses the causes and possible consequences of this phenomenon. To understand the implications of terrorism, it is necessary to look at this issue from the perspective of terms of its financing. This review study aims to define the term financing of terrorism on the one hand, but also to identify possible sources of financing of terrorism, including the most used payment methods by terrorist organizations. This study also leads a discussion on the efforts and effectiveness of the various authorities in the fight for detecting terrorism, especially in relation to the detection of its financial flows. The study also defines the possible pitfalls in the fight against terrorism and detecting its sources of financing and attempts to outline possible alternatives while increasing success in this fight.

Participation of experts form NATO member and partner countries in security situation development trends together with related military implications is meanwhile the newest mean of member states engagement onto NATO Defence Planning. In one hand this possibility is a way to gain findings from national experts and in other hand an opportunity enabling countries to enlarge knowledge and experience of national participants in order to development of similar activities at national level. Moreover there is an opportunity to present activities of nations´ institutions working in the similar field as well as national findings linked to security trends and defence planning. The author concludes that the Czech Republic has not yet formulated its own defence planning process, and suggests the possible effects of this condition

This article discusses the issues of the Czech military diplomacy carried out by military, air, naval or defence attachés accredited in foreign countries in order to uphold the national security and defence interests. The main emphasis of this article is put on the evaluation of current state and legal bases of military diplomacy of the Czech Republic. The article aims to identify and analyse the challenges (1) the Czech diplomacy is currently faced with and to propose viable solutions (2) which could possibly contribute to better coordination and effectiveness of the Czech military diplomacy.