SIPRI Policy Paper No. 14

Relics of Cold War: Defence Transformation in the Czech Republic

Miroslav Tůma

In the 17 years since the Velvet Revolution ended Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, the Czech military has transformed from a true ‘relic of the cold war’—overlarge, rapidly obsolescent, highly politicized and deployed exclusively to confront NATO forces in the West—to a small, professional force that is making valuable contributions to European defence and to multinational operations around the world. On the way it has met and successfully overcome many political, economic, social and structural obstacles, not least the dissolution of the Czechoslovak federation.

In this policy paper, Czech defence researcher Miroslav Tůma examines how the Czech Republic has tackled the diverse challenges of defence reform—from force restructuring to the arms industrial adjustment to environmental protection—and the many factors, internal and external, that have shaped the process. The author highlights the important role that NATO entry in 1999, and assistance from NATO members in the run-up to accession, had in boosting the Czech Republic’s defence performance on all fronts. At a time of renewed political uncertainty in the Czech Republic, he analyses the current status of defence reforms, the visions for the future and some of the pitfalls that defence planners and Czech society will need to avoid.

1. Introduction

2. Democratic control of the military

3. Reform of the organization, equipment and staffing of the armed forces

4. Personnel and social policy

5. International military cooperation

6. The defence economy

7. The armed forces and environmental protection

8. Conclusions

Appendix

Colonel (retd) Dr Miroslav Tůma (Czech Republic) served in the Czech and Czechoslovak military for more than 30 years. He graduated from the Military Communications School, Nove Mesto n. Váhom, and later from the Faculty of Law of Charles University, Prague, and served in a variety of command and staff posts. In 1989 and 1990 he participated in the first UN Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM I) and in 1991 he joined the UN humanitarian operation in Iraq as part of the UN Guards Contingent in Iraq (UNGCI). After ending his military career in December 1992, he was assigned to the Security Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. From 1994, during the Czech Republic’s membership of the UN Security Council, he worked for more than a year at the Czech permanent mission in New York. After his return to the Czech Republic he worked at the UN Department in the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs until his retirement in 2001. He is the author of several books on defence and security issues for the Institute of International Relations, Prague and the Institute for Strategic Studies of the Defence University at Brno, contributes to several periodicals published by both institutes and lectures on arms control and disarmament at the Faculty of Law of Charles University.

Click to obtain a PDF file of this Policy Paper.