Defence and strategy

Libor FRANK

Josef PROCHÁZKA

The contribution specifies the role strategic studies in maintaining defence and security of the country in a developing security environment. It outlines the directions of their future thematic focus and organisational development.

Miroslav HREBÍČEK

The article focuses on defining terms such as strategy, tactics, military strategies and the content of the role of strategic studies. It points out the objectives of the activities of the Study Team of Militarism and Military Art at the Institute for Strategic Studies and its treatment of strategic studies in the coming period.

Miroslav MAREŠ

The paper analyzes the perspectives of the Institute of Strategic Studies of the University of Defence. This institute should profile itself as a governmental as well as a university think-tank in the field of military security and strategy. The main goal of research should be strategic analyses of global security environment with specific interests in the crisis regions where there exist serious military threats to the security of the Czech Republic or its allies from the NATO and the EU or where the "out of area" operations of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic are possible. The institute should also analyze the trends in military art and strategy in the 21st century and the strategic development of military technologies and resources (with respect to capabilities of the Czech Armed Forces). Scholarly publications and educational work should strengthen the position of the Institute within scientific security community.

Jan EICHLER

During the period from its founding to 2006, the Institute of Strategic Studies, University of Defence, Brno has undoubtedly performed a lot of work. Along with extensive education and conference activities it has published a number of interesting books, some of them presenting high value and long term relevance. There are things to build upon. This is also the basis of this contribution. It consists of three parts: the first one deals with the Institute's activities up to now, the second outlines the topics for future activities of the Institute, and the last one presents a summary of recommendations.

Michal JANOUŠEK*, Josef PROCHÁZKA**

The article provides information about the international research project "Strategic Information in National Security", which studies the possibilities of using the semantic web in strategic studies and whose objective is to develop a prototype application employing this modern web technology for the Strategic Studies Institute, together with the Department of Communication and Information Systems (K-209) and the companies Tovek, Czech Republic and Mondeca, France.

Miroslav HREBÍČEK*, Janusz MIKA**

The article provides a brief description of activities, organisation and purpose of military science and research institutes in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic focusing in particular on research of the problem of strategy at these institutes. It provides introduction to the research activities of these institutes in context of security science in the following periods: -1918-1939, 1946-present. The authors point out the necessity of hindsight and the importance of learning from history for the scientific and educational activities in the sphere of security science and security education.

Monika GRASSEOVÁ

The objective of the article is to inform about applying SWOT analysis in practice in long-term planning, or in analysing the initial condition of the organisation. The vehicle of the paper lies in description of individual stages of performing the SWOT analysis. Each stage is broken into specific steps of applying the method in practice. Description of each step is accompanied by illustrated examples. The conclusion of the article provides the purpose of using the method.

Bohuslav PERNICA

Investment strategies of the armed forces related to their equipment is a strategy of investing financial resources into development of their operational capabilities, reproducing their weapon and technical systems and the growth of production per soldier. These strategies differ between individual countries resulting in different defence capacities of each country. The article treats of investment strategies of the US Armed Forces, which led to their technological growth, and compares it to the investment strategies of the armed forces of Czech Republic, bound to respond to obligations of Czech Republic towards the NATO Defence Capabilities Initiative.

Michal JANOUŠEK

World terrorism is like ivy that has grown into an immense number of types and shapes during the past years. Today the term terrorism does not cover only politically motivated assassinations or attacks. It is reflected in resistance against various factors at various levels of human activities. As the modern society is measured by the ability to use information, there is also a specific and dangerous form of hidden threat - cyberterrorism.