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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.

Studies of the importance of culture have gained greater attention in the post-Cold War era. In present world, there are many fenomena that can't be explained in terms of neorealism. There is the consensus in national security policy studies that culture may significantly affect grand strategy and state behaviour. It limits behavioural choices, from which we could derive predictions about our strategic choice. This study is based among others upon Johnston's strategic culture concept related to three generations. The study is divided into five parts: at first the author introduces general concept of strategic culture, the second, third and fourth parts correspond to individual generations. In closing part the author explains his own understanding to this concept.

In spite of the fact that the security tensions are not so high as during the cold war, with impending nuclear conflict, the global security situation is far from ideal. Fundamental changes in a global security environment have brought except a lot of positives also many negatives, in a form of various asymmetric security threats. The rise of new military and nonmilitary dangers, under the influence of globalization and contemporary worldwide economic crisis, is directly related to the need of conflict prevention, crisis management, peace missions, law enforcement, or support to humanitarian assistance.

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.

The overall purpose of this paper is to describe the ways the Alliance and the also the Czech Army will apply the operational art tenets, conducting operations in the future. The current military problems cannot be solved without a deep understanding and knowledge of operational art. In order to improve military thinking within the Czech Army, it is recommended to study and apply operational art. The operational art forms a bridge between strategy defining the political aims of war and tactics, fighting the battles. Commanders and staff officers should study operational art seriously, systematically and with all their efforts. The author deals with current state of present operational art to inform on new developments in this field of military art. The article broadens the vision and deepens the insights of its readers. All information and data for this paper were drawn from unclassified sources.

The former warriors from opposing sides are recounting their version of events have always been important in understanding history. In studying the Cold War, The Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact (PHP) has undertaken the mission of preserving the history of the two alliances that faced each other for decades on the continent of Europe during the Cold War. It has been collecting, analyzing and interpreting previously secret government documents and making them available via their unrestricted website [www.isn.ethz.ch/php/index. htm]. Documents alone cannot define the thinking behind events, so PHP is now gathering key players from both sides to discuss their perspectives on events. The first meeting in this series took place in Sweden, in April 2006. Similar conferences should add to the historical accuracy and understanding of that very long and dangerous period when the two large groups of armies stood ready against each other. Source: Army No. 7/2006.

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.

Israeli Defence Forces currently evaluates information collected during recent fighting in Lebanon. Although the war was assessed as successful, there are some deficiencies that are to be improved. (a) Aviation and air defence systems. Israel is prepared against ballistic missiles, it was not prepared against short distance ones. Attack helicopters AH-64 were for the first time deployed for tactical (close) combat support of ground forces. One of them crashed down, other two collided in the air; (b) Armour. Also Israel's Merkava Mk4 was used for the first time in combat. More than 50 of the 350 Merkava Mk2, 3 and 4 tanks used in the military operations in Lebanon were damaged by Hezbollah, resulting in the death of 23 crewmen. During the last year the IDF was constantly engaged in high-intensity urban counterterrorist warfare. The regular forces, including tank crews, were retrained for small unit infantry policing activities. As a result, among others, several tanks lost tracks due to driver's inexperience. The article widely drew from several reputable magazines and reviews: Aviation Week, No. 12/2006, Jane's Defence Weekly, No. 41/2006, Defense News, No. 38, 39/2006.

This year, the Hlávka Economy Institute published a book "Professional Army in the Czech Republic: First Five Years", by Bohuslav Pernica. It is a study dealing with first five years in which the Czech Republic transformed its forces from a conscription army to all-volunteer one. The author sees the necessity to go professional in context of changed global surrounding after the end of Cold War. The subject is treated mainly from economy point of view. He pays attention to three important issues related to this transformation: recruitment /retention, training /education, and substandard soldier's pay, which is one of roots of low service competitiveness on civil labour market.

As a boy of 17, in 1944, he joined the Czechoslovak Army Corps in the USSR, where he lived together with his parents. His father died while digging trenches, under the attack of German bombs. In the Czech Unit he underwent basis military training, coped with Morse code signals, and became a member of signal service. He was in action during the liberation of Czechoslovak borders. After the war, at home, he started to work in beer industry, as he graduated from brewery college. Finally he became the director of all breweries in Moravia. He retired in 1989. At present, he takes part in activities of the Czechoslovak Legionnaire Community; he was awarded several decorations and medals, e.g. Medal for Bravery, Medal for Gallantry in the face of Enemy, etc.

The results of American foreign, security, defence and military policies are ambiguous. The war in Iraq ends, troops are going to leave both Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama was held up in Arab spring. He tried to improve relations with Russia. The centre of gravity was moved to the Pacific area, which got complicated ties with People's China. He didn't succeed in solving troubles with nuclear programme in Iran. His moderate success in foreign policy was the consequence of his concentration on home politics, health care reform, economy and financial crises. At the end the essay evaluates the Chicago summit that among others officially affirmed that NATO activities in Afghanistan would be concluded by 2014 and declared the so-called smart defence.

The article deals with the reasons why NATO is interested in energy security and main tasks which Alliance fulfils in this area. A special attention is paid to the energy dependence of the European member states of the Alliance, the increase of awareness about energy security, critical energy infrastructure protection and energy efficiency in the armed forces. The author elaborates the implementation of the energy security issues into the Alliance main activities, education and training in the field of energy security and cooperation with partner countries, other international organizations and private sector.

The article is available only in the Czech language. For more information please contact editors.

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.

In 1939-41 Mr. Kácha was involved in Czech home resistance movement. At the beginning of 1948, the year of communist coup d'état, he became a member of illegal group of democratic army officers and military "academics" (officer candidates) at the Military Academy Hranice, headed by Col. Alexandr Korda. They collected intelligence information and prepared plans for the situation of prospective liberation of Czechoslovakia by Western democratic armies, or the Soviet Union?under the pressure of bad economic conditions or under Western pressure?would withdraw from Eastern Europe. They planned to form control authority to prevent chaos and acts of violence. In September 1949 he was sentenced to life imprisonment, after the Velvet Revolution, in May 1995, he was promoted to the rank of Major General. He was awarded the White Lion Order, Military Division.

The aim of this article is to clarify the terminology of Peace Support Operations. This article briefly explains the evolution and history of peacekeeping operations, as well as the basic concepts and operations division of NATO Peace Support Operations. An important part of this article is the definition of Peacekeeping Operations in the doctrinal documents of the Czech Armed Forces.
Peace Support Operations are dynamic and challenging activities. The intensity and complexity of Peace Support Operations has been increasing. That is why their political and military ambitions have been increasing too. There is a reason why authors explain this issue for readers, which is the main goal of this article.

Career education of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) personnel is a key component to meet requirements for qualifications. As these requirements are career growth conditions for career personnel, they are inherently connected with further promotion in rank. The MoD Concept of Personnel Development for 2012-2018 sets the direction of the educational development to achieve these qualification requirements. During the process of preparation of the career courses it was revealed that some system changes should be made due to implemented or planned changes within the legislative and source framework of the Ministry of Defence.This article describes the proposal of a new concept for training of personnel in the career courses. It was prepared by a project team headed by the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies at the Defence University. The article also shows the development of the situation since 2004, when the professionalization of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic occurred.

This paper addresses a gap in the literature relating to the effects and implications of water scarcity and the potential for water wars. The theme has evident military consequences. Experts provide rather pessimistic forecasts about the situation with freshwater on the planet. The early warning models seem to be quite useful as well as early warning conflict indicators. The author deals with the problem from the level of the Czech Republic.

The period of the beginning of the 21st century is typical for the situation characterized by minimization of a global conflict and by decreasing risks of a direct aggression among neighbouring countries. Nonetheless, the occurrence and permanent existence of mass destruction weapons and industrial accidents caused by human beings, natural disasters produced by leakages of toxic industrial materials, are considered as a global problem that determinates not only the activities of national armies, but also activities of civil population. The danger of WMD deployment is especially high at time of danger, when forces are to be used or misused, and terrorist activities might multiply in some world's regions, even in technologically underdeveloped countries.

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.

He was born in 1925 in Cieszyn Silesia Region of the former Czechoslovakia, where three nationalities lived together: Czechs, Gemans and Poles. His family was forced to adopt the so-called Volksliste No. 3 and therefore in 1944 he had to joint the German army. He became an artillerist and was transferred to France, where he deserted toether with his two friends, also from his native MoravianSilesina Region. After detention in a POWs camp in Scotland he volunteered for the Czechoslovak Independent Armour Brigade. He fought in France, later even in Czech lands. In civil life he graduated as a teacher and started to teach at the school for junior officers, but as a member of western armies was not allowed to teach in military school. But is was possible for him to work in civil schools till 1957, when he was found politically incompetent and began to work as a coal miner. In the period of liberalization in 1968 he returned to school.

Today, the word Concept is one of most used terms in the framework of long and medium term of defence management. Concept development as a process is mentioned in significant number of departmental regulations and descriptions of activities of organizational bodies of the Ministry of Defence and General Staff. Concept development and Experimentation is a kind of incantation used when we speak about the development of long and medium term strategic documents. This article comprises the analysis of the legal regulations concerning the development of strategic documents. It analyses the implications of the governmental Methodology of mid-term concepts and Methodology of preparation of public strategies for departmental strategic documents.

As many others, after the break of WWII, in 1940 he fled via Hungary to Yugoslavia. He joined the French Foreign Legion so that he could receive a visa to Alepa, capitol of Syria. But situation quickly changed. France lost war with Nazi Germany and Czechoslovak armed group moved to Gedera (Israel). After several reorganisations and fights in Egypt, his infantry unit was redeployed to England. There he was assigned to tank troops. At the battle of Dunkerque (France) he was injured and it was necessary for him to be hospitalised. He underwent through several hospitals in France and Belgium. After his return to Czechoslovakia he was assigned to unit that took care of UNRRA, they protect and guarded food and deliveries of military surplus. In 1948-1968 he worked in mechanic and engineering industry (ČKD Praha); in 1968, the year of Russian invasion, he left his country and asked for asylum in Austria. With the help of his uncle he found employment in steel works in Chicago (USA). He was decorated by many state/departmental medals, e.g. Czechoslovak War Cross 1939, or Medal for Bravery, etc.

This year we mark the 70th anniversary when the commander of 1st Squadron, RAF, Lt/O Antonín Velebnovský died in the Battle of Britain. He was only 26 years old. His biography is typical for Czechoslovak airmen. After German occupation of Czech lands, he fled abroad, to France. In Britain Antonín Velebnovský belonged among those officers who were assigned to British squadrons. His 1st Squadron was the first that was furnished with fighters Hawker Hurricane. Under his command served several legendary flying aces: Kuttelwascher, Jícha, Krátkoruký, Příhoda, Čížek, Dygrýn. His Hurricane was damaged in air combat and crushed down nearby the air base Tangmere, West Sussex. Among others he was decorated by Air Crew Europe Star, Czechoslovak War Cross 1939, and Military Commemorative Medal F-VB.

He was born in 1918, it means that this year he was 93 years old. He is a participant of the only armed fi ght against German invaders in 1993. The Germans did not release the data about the fallen, but it is estimated that they lost 12-18 deaths and several wounded. Corporal Šolc was discharged. Immediately he joined resistance movement. He was arrested. After the war he worked at the Ostrava Miners Directorate. Although he retires in 1976, he is still dynamic.

He was born in the early part of the last century, in 1919. After the German occupation, he fled the country and in 1939 he joined French Foreign Legion. He fought in Southern France and after the defeat of France he flew to England, where he was requalified for Spitfires. He took part in two operational runs, so he belonged among the most engaged and dedicated Czech pilots. In 1945 he was awarded DFC. Returning to his native country, he became a flying instructor and in 1946 Capt. Liškutin was assigned Aide, 7th Air Regiment, Brno. After 1948 (when communists came to power), he was dismissed from the Czech Air Force, and again escaped abroad. In Britain he joined the Royal Air Force. He retired in 1962 to find a position in a civilian airline company. He accepted the offer to become a pilot instructor in the Republic of Zambia (Central Africa). He wrote two books that were also published in the Czech Republic. Apart from the above mentioned DFC, he was awarded 5 Czechoslovak War Crosses 1939, Medal for Bravery, Merit Medal and many others.

The article deals with the disintegration and erosion of originally cohesive Chechen resistance movement during the First Chechen War and following inter-war period. According to the author, the main reasons of this process are criminality and religious fundamental radicalisation. They together produced inner confl icts between fi eld commanders; some of them attacked Russian security forces in neighbouring regions (Dagestan, Ingushetia), even after war had ended. Disintegration processes were encouraged by social deprivation after the first war, by strategical position of Chechnya in relation to smuggling drugs and weapons, stealing rude oil, and fi nally activities of foreign Islamic solidarity fi ghters. All those factors signifi cantly contributed to the outbreak of the Second Chechnya War.

Building up a picture of adversaries in complicated operations other than war (OOTW) requires fresh thinking on the collection and analysis of intelligence material, writes Dr Dave Sloggett in Jane's Defence Weekly No 48/2005. Operations undertaken in present-day theatres include the need to arrest war criminals, defeat insurgency operations and disrupt the activities from those engaged in criminal activities that do not respect national boundaries (trafficking, drugs smuggling and the proliferation of weapons of mass effect). OOTW pose problems for the development of what is now referred to as effects-based operations, where the use of kinetic devices to destroy a target is one way to achieve an outcome. One important element of a solution is to build common definitions of terms that enable a discipline to be brought to the underlying freedom of authors compiling contact reports. Projects such as Dabinett, a multifaceted system of systems programme, can link together information contained in existing systems. Commanders able to exploit this capability, against the complex background in which OOTW are conducted, will truly take superior decisions.

Army personnel are ranked according to level, from the lowest (privates, sergeants, WOs) to the highest (officers, generals). A total of 80 per cent of professional soldiers, in lowest ranks, are hired at labour market. They form the core of our military personnel, so that they have to be properly taken care of. But in ours, we have still the mentality of mass armies of cold-war period. There have been professional armed forces in the Czech Republic for more than five years, nevertheless the question how to build up the other rank corps is still opened. This article deals with this problem and the method how to cope with the need to form more professionalized NCOs. Broadly speaking, it is the question of the quality overpassing the quantity. Author insists that the British model of NCO's career path should be easily applied into the Czech Armed Forces to get rid of the obsolete recruiting related more to a model of conscription forces.

There are three protective emblems in use: the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, and the Red Crystal. As protection symbols, they are used in armed conflicts to mark persons and objects (buildings, vehicles, etc.) which are working in compliance with the rules of the Geneva Conventions. The cross, crescent or crystal must be used alone for what is termed "protective" use, to safeguard relief workers. The article predominantly deals with the third protocol emblem also known as the Red Crystal. In short it summarizes its history. Because of the controversy over Israel's national society Magen David Adom and a number of other disputes, the introduction of an additional neutral protection symbol had been under discussion for a number of years. In fact, this symbol is quite unknown in our country.

When the Czech Republic joined NATO, some structural changes in the national security sector were expected. Actually, changes in national defence strategy were declared by national strategic documents, such as military and security strategies. In addition to it, since 2002 the Czech Republic has been taking part in Global War on Terrorism and, generally speaking, it implies higher expenditures spent on security purposes. Surprisingly, many things have remained the same. The strategic documents were mostly ignored, deep changes did not happen due to fiscal policy based on a traditional incremental budgeting. Proportions between expenditures for internal and external security were only fluctuating.