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The article deals with the system of joint doctrine development in the Czech Armed Forces (CAF) focused on the operational level of command and control, including the implementation of the NATO doctrines into national conditions. Among others, it was found that the structure and content of the Czech doctrines are not systematically set. Allied doctrines are introduced either by rewriting them into the Czech version or by introducing them in the full English version. In both cases, it might cause inconsistency in military terminology. The Coordinating Committee as the only supervisory body does not have the authority to streamline the process of producing military publications. The most important paper recommendations include alignment of the Czech doctrinal framework with the NATO architecture, adoption of Allied doctrines in the English version including the national specifics, or redistribution of competencies within the processing group. Notwithstanding, the above-mentioned proposals, which indicated high impact, require crucial steps to be taken to implement them.

Since 1991, when they regained their independence, the Baltic States have made a concerted effort to become part of the Western alliance system. The article is based on the idea that the primary reason for this orientation cannot be explained solely by normative elements such as identity or culture. Undoubtedly, the West has always been a world to which these countries in question did not belong. Nevertheless, it should not be forgotten that the main priority of the Baltic States, which are categorised as small states, is to preserve their independence. As a result of their historical experiences, Russia is the biggest obstacle that the Baltic countries see in front of these goals. In order to balance the renewed and intensely felt Russian threat, the West has been seen as the only real strategic choice for the region’s countries. This article argues that the countries of the region have no alternative option in this process, which resulted in membership in NATO and the EU. Indeed, historical experience has shown that these countries’ strategic choices, such as bandwagoning to preserve their independence, which would mean aligning with the threatener, or avoiding being the centre of attention of the adversary by remaining neutral have not yielded results. Therefore, this article aims to try to understand the logic of the Baltic states’ strategic choices based on the balance of threat theory. This is because by turning towards the West, the countries of the region have sought to balance not Russian power but the threat they perceive from this country.

The paper presents the results of research, whose main goal is to evaluate the aviation and rocket capability of the armed forces of the Russian Federation and Ukraine in terms of a possible launch of regular warfare. The authors primarily focus on changes in the military doctrine of the Russian Federation, which have created legal determinants of the use of armed forces outside the country’s territory in defense of national minorities, illustrated by taking control of Crimea. The authors also stress Russia’s military plans, including the development directions of the potential of armed forces as well as a possible threat to the security of the eastern NATO’s flank in the event of a conflict in Ukraine. In this respect, the capabilities of the air defense of countries on the eastern NATO flank, particularly Poland’s capability, were analyzed.

Low-intensity conflict is a concept whose beginnings date back to the 1980s and it is defined as a political-military confrontation between contending states or groups below the intensity of conventional war and above the routine, peaceful competition among states. It frequently involves protracted struggles of competing principles and ideologies. Low-intensity conflict ranges from subversion to the use of the armed forces. It is waged by a combination of means, employing political, economic, informational and military instruments. Low-intensity conflicts are often localized, generally in developing countries, but contain regional and global security implications. The most significant content of the low-intensity con flict in the country being acted upon is insurgency, whether it is being helped or crushed. Insurgency is an organized, armed political struggle aimed at seizing power through revolutionary takeover and replacement of the existing government. This paper provides an overview of previous research on the topic of low-intensity conflict and presents its key components.

The article deals with the scientific works by Mykola Kapustyansky, one of the most famous and authoritative representatives of the highest officers of the Ukrainian Revolution. He actively participated in the development of statehood and the Armed Forces during the National Liberation Competitions of 1917-1921, collaborated with Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky and Chief Otaman Symon Petliura, and participated in the military activities of the UNR Army. During the emigration in the 1920s and 1930s, Mykola Kapustyansky actively cooperated with the OUN and also engaged in military scientific activities. He wrote books, lectured, prepared military training courses, and published journals. His theoretical works are a very valuable source. They relate to the period of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921, the Cossack-Polish Wars and the National Liberation War of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the analysis of the military and political situation in the 1920s and 1930s, and the prospects for the development of the Ukrainian military doctrine. Kapustyansky's works have a deep historical analysis, extensive factual material, assessments of socio-political figures and officers. This article has the following tasks: to find out the basic conceptual foundations of the events of the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917-1921 in the works of Kapustyansky, to tell about the research of general-hohorzhim of the Cossack-Polish armed wars, in particular the Khmelnytsky period, to identify the basic aspects of the military doctrine of M. Kapunsky. For the article the author used as sources of the book Kapustyansky Military Knowledge, Modern War and Our Tasks, Hike of the Ukrainian Armies to Kyiv-Odessa in 1919 and Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian National Revolution. Also for historiography the author used the works of Ukrainian historians Mykhailo Kovalchuk, Igor Shandrivsky, Yaroslav Tynchenko. The methods of the study are comparative, descriptive, problem-chronological, and complex-analytical ones.

The need for the development and adoption of outer space doctrine becomes more and more evident. Daily space operations are conducted in a doctrinal void, and this void makes it difficult to predict how well-regulated space activities will be in current conditions and how sustainable it will be. Moreover, the tragic events of the present (pandemic outbreak) have shown that the world, despite all its adaptability, is not ready for such a scenario. Therefore, the issue of sustainability of all systems is relevant. The sustainability of outer space activities is no exception. Long-term sustainable space activities require a common approach to policy, theory and doctrine. This article describes how to achieve this balance. In spite of novelty of the processes described in this paper, they will be useful for establishing ideas on policy, theory, and doctrine in order to enable a coherent strategy for the development of space activities.

Utilizing military convoys in humanitarian missions allows for increased overall performance of healthcare logistical operations. To properly gauge performance of autonomous ground convoy systems in military humanitarian operations, a proper framework for comparative performance metrics needs to be established. Past efforts in this domain have had heavy focus on narrow and specialized areas of convoy performance such as human factors, trust metrics, or string stability analysis. This article reviews available Army doctrine for manned convoy requirements toward healthcare missions and establishes a framework to compare performance of autonomous convoys, using metrics such as spacing error, separation distance, and string stability. After developing a framework of comparison for the convoy systems, this article compares the performance of two autonomous convoys with unique convoy control strategies to demonstrate the application and utility of the framework.

The urgency of the article is due to the need to develop new approaches to increasing the effectiveness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the present stage of their development and designing new methods and tasks in the military policy of the state. These approaches, according to the authors, should be based on the basis of the best and most promising achievements of world military thought and take into account their own historical experience of Ukrainians. In the context of studying this experience, the authors of the article consider the theoretical contributions of some representatives of Ukrainian military emigration, whose ideas and opinions formed the basis for the design of the military doctrine of the modern Ukrainian state. The purpose of the study is to analyze the conceptual approaches to the foundations of military construction during the period of the national revolution of 1917-1921 in the writings of military historians, to clarify the place and role of Ukrainian military authors in the elaboration of the theoretical norms of the military doctrine set forth in the pages of scientific works on the issue of national construction armed forces. The article describes the state of military construction of the period of the national revolution of 1917-1921. Shows the main problems of military-theoretical nature, which are presented in the writings of military historians of the interwar period. It is shown how the representatives of military emigration considered the problems connected with the future world armed conflict and the possibility of rebuilding their own army. The novelty of the study is to comprehensively study Ukrainian military-theoretical thought in the interwar period, to distinguish between conceptual differences in the views of military theorists on ways of forming a military doctrine.

Doctrine is one of the most widely used terminology. A set of non-binding principles and rules that are addressed to the decision makers and authorities of a country to determine the strategy of the country in different dimensions. This term has been used frequently in various areas of political, social, cultural, military, economic, and so on, but there is still some ambiguity about the precise and comprehensive concept as well as the features that one has with them, so that some our country's scholars do not even have the correct pronunciation of the alien word of doctrine. Therefore, with the aim of creating a common culture and mentality and familiarity of the commanders, managers and decision makers of the military field with this concept; in this article, we tried to describe some of the guidelines through a descriptive-qualitative analysis method and data collection using library and Internet methods. The characteristics of these guidelines, from the point of view of internal and external resources, have been examined and summarized, and ultimately, as a conclusion, the nature of a military strategy is explained and its characteristics are counted. In this research, the researcher seeks to answer the question of what is the military doctrine and what features a military doctrine?

This article explores how conventional military doctrines shape U.S.-China military engagement in the West Pacific under varying degrees of cooperation, competition and potential conflicts. Although military doctrines possess a certain level of influence on the ways and means of engaging each other in military terms, such engagement is not confined to using deadly force with a clear aim to destroy the other party. Instead, these doctrines can act as an instrument to forestall conflicts by maintaining credible deterrence. As rational actors that follow clear rules of military engagement, both the United States and China are fully aware of the defensive, offensive and deterrent value of their respective military doctrines, as well as the consequences of a potential conflict; and they have tried to expand cooperation on a number of non-traditional security issues. However, given their forward deployment-oriented military doctrines and the rising role of non-state actors, the United States and China are very likely to be engaged in an unintended escalation of conflicts if each holds a rigid view toward the other’s military doctrine and fails to maintain stable military ties based on timely communication and constructive interaction.

The Battle of Britain is one of the most important military events of the Second World War. Different approaches have been used to study it and understand the rationale behind Britain’s and Nazi Germany’s strategy. However, the use of warfare concepts, such as centers of gravity and its contemporary meaning, to scrutinize the planning and prosecution of the battle have not been as prolific. This article aims to contribute to the debate by maintaining that the concept of Centers of Gravity provides an advantageous framework that facilitates the understanding of the mindset and development of the battle in terms of critical capabilities, requirements, and vulnerabilities required to win.

In December 2017 and January 2018, the Sejm and Senate, thanks to the votes of the deputies of ruling party Law and Justice, passed hugely controversial law amending inter alia Polish Electoral Code. Its adoption was opposed by the parliamentary opposition, by the electoral administration bodies and by many experts, however unsuccessfully. The enactment of this law destabilises the electoral system without a clear or evident need and treats the electoral code as a political instrument. Secondly, it does not provide the sufficient time for adaptation (vacatio legis), which may jeopardise free and fair local elections and the stability of the political system. Thirdly, the bill contains numerous unclear provisions and is in many parts written in a careless and contradictory way. Such amendments do not correspond with the European standards, described in the Venice Commission’s Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters.

This article explores the problem addressing the process of international rationalization of uses of force in the conduct of foreign policy by states. Behavior of states is to a great extent preconditioned by the existence of an obligation to interpret the rules of international law publicly. Author defines the subject matter of the process of international rationalization of uses of force and the basic missions of it. Additionally the article does evolve the coherence of that process with military doctrine and translated into reality national security strategy.

The Republic of Moldova is on the way to development and implementation of a real security policy, which can be initiated on a conceptual and legislative basis. Existing legal documents allow an overview on the security vision, interests, objectives and mechanisms of implementing security and defense policy of the Republic of Moldova. However, the current security environment, as well as the dangers coming from within the state, require the revision and reconceptualization of the political and legal framework of the national security of the Republic of Moldova. For ensuring a clear strategic vision requires the defining of the basic concepts that contribute to the formulation of an explicit national security policy.

In this article, hybrid warfare challenges and their impact on the evolution of warfare in the new dynamic security environment are analysed. The aim of the research was to identify hybrid threats, explore the complexity of the hybrid conflict that involves professional Armed Forces and irregular (paramilitary) forces. The research has been conducted through two case studies of hybrid warfare: the Israeli - Lebanese conflict in 2006 and the Lebanese militia organisation Hezbollah as a prototype of hybrid opponents; and the contemporary hybrid conflict in Ukraine through the Russian paradigm of hybrid warfare. The conducted research showed that the decisive role that influenced the outcome of the conflict belonged either to rapidness or inertia in of the making of political decisions. The research results showed further that revision of the existing strategic and doctrinal documents are required, as well as reorganisation of the national security system (and the Armed Forces as part of it), without which they will not be able to deal successfully with the dynamic nature of future conflict and complexity of threats (“synergy of threats”). The political decision is the most essential parameter for sizing military organisation. The rapidity of response in the event of emergencies (especially outside the national territory) also depends on the promptness of political decisions in order to activate the Armed Forces.

This paper aims to analyze and periodize the characterization of the population held in the context of counterinsurgency, doctrine that guided the actions of the armed forces, security forces and paramilitary organizations in El Salvador between 1961 and 1972.

The transformation and development of the Serbian Armed Forces made use of, among other things, the best foreign experiences. A principle set for this development was the interoperability with foreign armed forces in the processes and activities involving units of the Serbian Armed Forces, such as the Partnership for Peace program, or the participation in multinational operations outside the Republic of Serbia. A particular aspect of the application of foreign experiences is the concept of the development of the Serbian Armed Forces, based on capabilities. In foreign armed forces, these capabilities are known as 'essential operational capabilities', and in the Serbian Armed Forces as 'operational and functional capabilities'. Building of these capabilities is based on factors, among which one of the key ones is the military doctrine. The topic of this paper is the conditionality of the operational capabilities building on the development of the Serbian Armed Forces' doctrine.

This article traces the story of how the author and a number of daring young commanders and soldiers had cast aside military textbooks in developing their own military doctrine for mobile warfare, South African style. It is clear that the Ratel infantry fighting vehicle had wielded huge influence on the development and deployment of doctrine for mobile warfare during the 23-year long South African Border War. The author answers a simple ‘yes’, to the question raised whether the military doctrine the South African Defence Force (SADF) had devised during the Border War had served its purpose. He furthermore emphasises that significant lessons can be learned from the way the SADF had fought its military campaigns, a statement borne out by various authoritative publications recently circulated.

The article familiarizes readers with author´s perspective on status of the operational Art in the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic (AF CR). He argues that the AF CR community of military “thinkers” has for a long time fallen behind of conceptual developments and discussion regarding operational art that have occurred in other NATO member´s countries. Although the “tactical experience” is vital, there exists “operational inexperience”. A recovery of Czech operational art is necessary because if the AF CR is faced by a parallel requirement to be a global ‘security contributor’ and a possible regional ‘security leader’. Future operational art must seek to reflect a conceptual framework and to integrate both emerging functions. With the view of developing a appropriate construct of 21st century operational art, the AF CR must take a number of reforms. Such reforms include adopting a functional approach to operational concept development, improving doctrines, developing comprehensive operation planning and establishing significant reforms into the professional military education system.

Since the beginning of their existence people have tended to discover and to choose the course of their action. The drama of the human condition is that man has to decide which action to carry forward, whereas his decisions can really have long-term consequences.

This article analyses the military capabilities of India and the prospects for further development of relations between Ukraine and India in military and defence sector. We study the main meetings between the two countries and the agreements that were reached during these meetings. It is proved that Ukraine and India have long and successful cooperation in military-technical sphere. At the present stage the cooperation in military-technical and defence sectors develops rapidly in comparison with other areas. Ukraine is able to hold the position of one of the leading suppliers of military goods.