Challenges to national defence in contemporary geopolitical situation

This paper conceptualizes security literacy as an educational competence linked to societal resilience and national defence preparedness. It combines theoretical discussion with an interpretative use of recent Czech survey material from primary and secondary schools. The Czech case suggests a mismatch between the perceived importance of security-related competencies and their fragmented institutional presence in formal education. The article argues that schools should be understood as part of long-term civilian preparedness and recommends clearer curricular anchoring, stronger teacher preparation, and more systematic practical instruction.

This article analyses how the evolving Arctic security environment generates new requirements for the intelligence staffs of non-Arctic North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) armies, using the Czech Army as a case study. Drawing on doctrinal analysis, scenario-based assessment, and a review of intelligence education, it identifies a structural mismatch between land-centric intelligence practice and the Arctic’s multi-domain, hybrid, and environmentally extreme operational character. The article concludes that non-Arctic allies require proportionate doctrinal adaptation, differentiated professional education, and a limited but credible Arctic intelligence capability.

The period in which countries around the world, including the Czech Republic, found themselves at the end of 2021 was characterized by a number of very significant political and security threats and risks. It was a period in which the next wave of the pandemic situation associated with the COVID-19 disease was manifesting itself. Even though the Czech Republic was already much better prepared for the problems associated with the outbreak of this disease, it could not be said that it was managing everything well, without problems and within the political consensus of all ruling and opposition parties. Based on results achieved in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, which took place in October 2021, the priorities of the winning parties grouped into one government coalition were set. These priorities were presented in the form of a coalition agreement to the public. A paper deals with the anticipated intentions of the Government of the Czech Republic in its implementation for the 2021-2025 electoral period in the issues of safety and security in all aspects of their perception. Among the aspects examined were the areas of security policy implementation and the broader concept of population protection. In the paper, the terms “security” and “protection” are frequented in the number and form in which they appear in the text of the coalition agreement. The paper presents the occurrence of these terms in the documents that became the basic and initial documents for establishing mutual pre-election cooperation between political parties and movements. Last but not least, it also presents changes in the approach to these concepts in relation to coalition agreements concluded in 2013 and 2017. Other aspects of coalition agreements are deliberately not mentioned.

The goal of the paper is to summarize the results of the authors’ questionnaire survey focused on identification and comparison of possible differences in study motivation and job expectations of students of one private and one public university in the Czech Republic to find out potential sources of students’ dissatisfaction and to propose appropriate measures to improve the teaching process in order to achieve the sustainable development of the professional competencies of university students. The questionnaire survey was conducted by authors from February to April 2017. The respondents were full-time and combined bachelor’s students of the College of Regional Development in Prague (private) and the Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies of the Czech Technical University in Prague (public). The relevant data were obtained from 758 students. The data analysis was based on the calculation of relative frequencies (as a share from the total number of respondents) and the evaluation of the dependence of responses on the type of university (students of the private college and students of the public institute) using contingency tables and chi-square tests of independence. The results support the assumption that the current generation of university students studies to succeed in the future, but it has relatively high expectations about work and career that may reduce its employability if it does not have the appropriate work experience and social habits.

The issue of sustainability is frequently discussed in relation to the tourism industry. This is as a consequence of the rapidly increasing demands of tourists and the fact that tourism is perceived as one of the driving forces behind economic growth in some destinations. This can lead to both positive and negative future impacts. The emergence and growing economic impact of tourism means that it is essential to devote research into the implementation of sustainability issues and measurement indicators with regards to future economic prosperity. Historically, one of the first needs of a tourist was the need for shelter against the elements. Nowadays, the understanding of what accommodation is has been extended to include comfort and relaxation. The pressure on the accommodation sector to apply sustainability measures in practice in order to adapt to changing demands and to protect its economic prosperity, is enormous. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the main economic sustainability indicators, gross domestic product, and the internal consumption of tourists in accommodation facilities. The hypothesis that a mutual relationship exists in the Czech Republic between gross domestic and the contribution of domestic and inbound tourism expenditure on accommodation, is tested through a correlation analysis. The results of this analysis were used to determine how urgent the need is to implement sustainability measures within the Czech accommodation sector and within the hotel industry.