Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

Language proficiency is a key prerequisite for interoperability within NATO armed forces, making foreign language education an essential component of professional military training. This paper examines learning motivation and learning effectiveness among Czech Armed Forces personnel attending English language courses aligned with NATO STANAG 6001. The research is based on a questionnaire survey of 320 learners conducted between 2023 and 2025, combined with their examination results. The study analyses differences in motivation and learning effectiveness with respect to proficiency level, gender, and age. The findings indicate that learning effectiveness is not directly dependent on course level, motivation structures are similar across genders, and the age significantly influences learning outcomes.

Military expenditures represent an important component of government spending devoted to the provision of national defense as a core public good. Despite their importance, no universally accepted definition of military expenditure exists, as national governments and international organizations apply differing conceptual and methodological approaches. This paper examines the evolution of defense burden, measured as military expenditure as a share of gross domestic product across NATO member countries from 2010 to 2025, with particular attention to NATO spending commitments adopted at the Wales Summit in 2014, all within the context of the current defense spending commitment adopted during the Hague Summit in 2025. Using SIPRI military expenditure data, defense burden trends are analyzed in three periods: pre-2014, post-2014 and pre-2022, and post-2022 following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The results reveal a long-term shift from declining defense burdens prior to 2014 toward a sustained increase across most NATO members after the Wales Summit, with a pronounced acceleration after 2022. While the NATO-wide average defense burden rose above 2% of GDP by 2025, significant disparities among member states persist. A detailed case study of the Czech Republic demonstrates a broadly similar but lagging trajectory, with defense spending consistently remaining below NATO average and median values and failing to reach the 2% GDP threshold by 2025. The findings underscore structural differences in burden sharing within NATO and highlight the relevance of past spending behavior for assessing the credibility of current and future defense commitments.

The aim of this paper is to identify, design and classify general instruments applicable to stabilize development in defense spending as one of the decisive prerequisites of a long-term maintenance and development of national defense capabilities. Based on analyses of approaches implemented in the former Czechoslovakia and later in the Czech Republic as well as in other selected European countries, the paper submits a set of measures leading to defense spending stabilization. To gather data regarding practice in individual countries a structured interviews and a questionnaire survey have been carried out, addressing subject matter experts in selected European countries. Result of this research have proven that in a number of countries the issue of defense spending stabilization has never been addressed. Based on experience of those countries that have implemented certain measures of defense spending stabilization, it seems that the optimum approach to defense spending stabilization consists of instruments that are anchored in national legislation and that enable an overall fixation (reservation of certain part of government incomes for the purpose of armed forces maintenance and modernization).