Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

The article focuses on the complex and long process of liquidating the world's chemical weapons stockpiles under the control and supervision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, headquartered in The Hague. The main possessors of chemical weapons from the end of World War II until their complete destruction were the United States of America and the Russian Federation (formerly the Soviet Union). The process of destroying chemical weapons by the main owners is described in detail. Surprisingly, the completion of the destruction of chemical weapons in the Russian Federation was announced already in 2017, while the United States of America announced the completion of the destruction of its chemical weapons only in mid-2023. A significant fact remains that in 2013, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was highly honoured by receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. The last part contains official announcements about the end of destruction of chemical weapons in the world.

In 2021, the South Moravia region of the Czech Republic was dealing with the aftermath of tornado. This extraordinary event, which is not very frequent in the Czech Republic, was associated with the implementation of a considerable amount of efforts aimed at rescue, liquidation and subsequent recovery work. Using this emergency as an example, it can be stated that it is evident that climatic and meteorological conditions are changing significantly in connection with global climate change and are also affecting the territory of the Czech Republic. It is therefore very realistic to expect that the occurrence of emergencies associated with surprising and often difficult to predict emergencies will become more and more common, and it is therefore necessary to constantly prepare, not only at the level of public authorities, but also at the level of school facilities. The main body of the article focuses on the specification of proposals and measures that could be taken in any municipality affected by such or similar emergencies. Not only the proposals related to the implementation of recovery (technical) works, but also to the protection of the population, especially in the field of its education, have been elaborated in detail. Increasing the level of education and preparedness of the population can make a significant contribution to better managing the impact of emergencies of the same or similar nature.

The issue of preventing major chemical accidents has been dealt with in the Czech Republic (and in the former Czechoslovakia) for a long time. The first law on this issue was already issued in 1999 on the basis of the European directive SEVESO I from 1982. Many serious chemical accidents from abroad and in the Czech Republic are well known and documented in the professional literature. The new valid law on the prevention of major accidents from 2015 also deals with the protection of the population in emergency planning zones. The implementation of these measures and the level and quality of population protection in emergency planning zones is different. The modelling of emergency impacts also helps to increase the protection of the population in the named zones. A whole range of different SW products and tools are used for this, in the Czech Republic they are mainly the domestic SW tools TerEx and ROZEX-Alarm, or the freely available American ALOHA. Some calculations in the article on the most hazardous industrial toxic gases, toxic vapors or toxic aerosols show how serious a safety issue it is from the point of view of population protection in emergency planning zones. These security issues are discussed in detail in the professional article. In the draft part, the authors present their own previously unpublished set of real, thought-out and justified new or improved measures to increase safety in emergency planning zones in case of possible chemical accidents. Unfortunately, it must be noted that the area of "population protection" is not covered by a separate law in the Czech Republic, while in Slovakia such a law has existed since 1994.

This article presents a view and opinion on the methods of applying risk analysis in the Czech Republic, gained through practical experience. Risk analysis is a fundamental building block in the creation of key documents in the field of emergency planning and crisis management, which are an integral part of the security system of the Czech Republic. In risk analysis, an important role is played by determining the threats that most threaten the Czech Republic, and then adopting measures that will reduce the level of risk to an acceptable level. The increasing number of natural and anthropogenic emergencies naturally brings with it an increase in the severity of their consequences. Within the framework of the systematic application of the policy of preventing emergencies and crisis situations, the analysis of threats and the risks arising from them is of key importance. The publication describes the risk analysis methodology, which culminated in the adoption of the document "Threat Analysis for the Czech Republic" approved by Resolution of the Government of the Czech Republic No. 369 in April 2016. The document analysis method was used as the basic research method. This qualitative research method was focused on the analysis of threats in the Czech Republic. At the same time, it responded to the past extraordinary events that are commented on in the publication. The developing trend of research in the field of protection against the effects of CBRN substances was also emphasized. The analysis of documents is limited to the period from 2016 to the present, because the Threat Analysis for the Czech Republic was approved in 2016. The basic question is therefore whether this threat analysis corresponds to the current security situation in the Czech Republic and in Europe. Some challenges and potential shortcomings in this area are pointed out, especially at the level of territorial self-governing units and in the area of legal regulation and legislation. The perspective on new challenges in connection with protection against the effects of CBRN substances, increased risk of terrorism and other extraordinary events causing large-scale violations of the law is also emphasized. In this context, the issue of soft targets is also partially analysed, since the vast majority of similar incidents occur in these facilities. The conclusions from the article and the aforementioned ambiguities should be the subject of expert discussion in the future, and possible legislative revisions should be made in order to ensure systemic efficiency and clear definition of responsibilities both in the area of risk analysis and in the area of subsequent processing of crisis plans and other security documents.

The issue of major chemical accidents in the Czech Republic is first mentioned from a historical point of view. The following are the main hazardous impacts of chemical accidents. The next part is a comparison of the accidental impacts of major emergencies, such as toxic leakage, explosion and fire, even with examples of several typical chemical substances. Some factors of the main hazardous chemicals with a focus on toxic substances are discussed in detail. The modelling of accident impacts is presented in the next section on a detailed comparison of the accident impacts of nine main industrial chemical toxicants. The article also draws attention to the serious danger of the possible misuse of toxic substances in particular for hostile acts of chemical terrorism.

This article deals primarily with the protection of the population in the Czech Republic, as it is a very important security area of the highest priority. The population protection system in the Czech Republic is briefly explained, which has been fully under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic since 2001, but a number of other central administrative authorities (ministries, special institutes and institutions, research institutes) are also involved in its implementation. In addition to legal standards and implementation decrees, the Czech Republic security strategy and the concept of population protection are also presented. A separate part is devoted to the last valid Population Protection Concept from 2021, and it is emphasized here that the concept places great importance on the population’s preparedness for dealing with extraordinary events and crisis situations. The Model Action Activity of the Integrated Rescue System in the Czech Republic is presented in the next section. Although many model action activities have already been published in the Czech Republic, unfortunately such a safety management plan has not yet been published for the extremely hazardous natural disaster „Tornado“. This subsection briefly explains how the Intergreted Rescue system intervenes in emergency and crisis situations. A separate part is devoted to the hazardous and strong tornado in Moravia in 2021, where a total of 6 people lost their lives and another 200 were injured, many were hospitalized. Material damage after the tornado’s rampage climbed to dizzying heights. The wave of solidarity with the affected population has reached unprecedented proportions not only in the Czech Republic. At the end of the contribution, the authors present their own proposal for the future, how to continue working in this area, from the preparation and convening of a national security conference in the Czech Republic to the preparation and publication of the Model Action Activity of the Integrated Rescue System in the Czech Republic in the disaster event of a tornado.

Important role in the implementation of a proactive approach represents operations dedicated to elimination of weapons of mass destruction. It is obvious that if trained and adequately equipped military forces carried out an operation to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, it significantly reduces the need to organize extensive CBRN defence measures for military forces or protection of civilians. Measures to implement the tasks of defence against weapons of mass destruction (CBRN defence) recently change. The security environment influences the perception and attitude of the Alliance to address global problems associated with state or non-state ownership of weapons of mass destruction. The focus of the Chemical Corps is gradually expanding from the current passive (reactive) approach to proactive approach.

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.