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Further Reading

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic has good relations with all of its neighbors, and none of its borders are in question. The Czech Republic is a member of the EU, UN, and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and will lead a European Union Battle Group (EUBG) in the second half of 2009.

According to the Constitution of the Czech Republic, the President is the supreme commander of Armed Forces, while the Minister of Defence, as a member of the Government, is the immediate superior to his deputies and the Chief of the General Staff, who is the highest military official within the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic.

The name of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic (ACR) is used for the Army of the Czech Republic (ACR) or the Czech military. As the literal translation from Czech into English of the Army of the Czech Republic could imply it contains only ground forces, the formulation of Armed Forces of the Czech Republic has been adopted to describe the whole organisation of the Czech military. The Czech law No. 219/1999 Dig., referred to as the Defence Law, including its amendments, stipulates that the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic consist of the Army, Military Office of President of the Republic, and the Castle Guard. The Castle Guard is a military unit protecting and defending the seat of the President at the Prague Castle.

The Czech Republic continues to make significant contributions to international allied coalitions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kosovo. In early 2008, the Czech Republic established a 200-person Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Logar Province, Afghanistan. In addition, an Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) was deployed to work alongside the Afghanistan National Air Corps. The deployment of this Czech OMLT complements the donation of 12 excess fully overhauled Czech military helicopters to Afghanistan. This increased commitment of support deployments to Afghanistan has not diminished the Czech Republic's continued commitment to support other coalition efforts, including providing a maneuver battalion to Kosovo in support of the Kosovo Force (KFOR) on a continual rotational basis.

A major overhaul of the Czechoslovak defense forces began in 1990 and continues in the Czech Republic. Czech forces have been successfully downsized from 200,000 to approximately 30,000, and at the same time reoriented into a more mobile, deployable force. The Czechs have made good progress in reforming the military personnel structure, and a strong commitment to English-language training is paying off. Compulsory military service ended in December 2004. The Czech Government currently spends slightly less than 1.4% of GDP on defense.

The Czech Republic's involvement in the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is part of its membership of the EU. During 2008, the Czech Republic actively contributed to the formulation and implementation of the EU's foreign policy at the level of working groups, the EU's Political and Security Committee (PSC/COPS), the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), and meetings of political directors and European correspondents. The Czech Republic took part in meetings of the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) at the level of ministers of foreign affairs, informal meetings of ministers of foreign affairs (Gymnich), and several EU meetings with third countries.

For the Czech Republic, the North Atlantic Alliance is the cornerstone of the Euro-Atlantic security architecture, and the Czech Republic's membership of this collective defence organisation is of primary importance for ensuring its national security. From the Czech Republic's point of view, the North Atlantic Alliance plays an indispensable role as a transatlantic consultation forum, and through its operations and various forms of partnership cooperation it projects security outside NATO's geographical borders. For those reasons, security cooperation with European and North American countries through NATO membership is one of the Czech Republic's foreign policy priorities, in line with the Czech Republic's Security Strategy from 2003.