Reforming the Czech Armed Forces
In just over a decade, the Czech Republic has transformed itself from a former Warsaw Pact member to a trustworthy NATO ally. In this week's Magazine Daniela Lazarova talks to Jan Vana, head of the army's department for strategic planning, about the ongoing process of reform of the Czech Armed Forces.
What you heard there is archive material from a military parade prior to the fall of communism. The then-Czechoslovak army was part of the Warsaw Pact and military parades were frequent and popular, with soldiers reporting to the communist top brass and cheering "long live peace" and "long live the Soviet Union".
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since. The Warsaw Pact disintegrated shortly after the fall of communism in eastern Europe. The Czech Republic re-embraced Western values and made a bid to join NATO. On March 12th of 1999 the country became a fully fledged NATO member, and Czechs, long weary of the situation in the former Soviet empire, breathed a sigh of relief at having escaped the security vacuum created by the fall of the communism.
Membership in NATO changed the entire concept of defense in the Czech Republic. NATO officials made it clear that size needed to be replaced by professionalism and team work. Asked what NATO expected of the Czech Armed Forces the deputy minister for reform Jaroslav Skopek said " action capable units at the right time, in the right place". Providing this, within a few years time, was a tall order. It became clear that the Czech Army would have to be fully professionalized and streamlined. That process is now underway and the Czech Republic should have a fully professional army counting 35,000 men by 2007.
With the end of the Cold War and the admission of new members from the east, NATO sought a new identity and indeed a new "raison d'etre". The September 11th terrorist attacks against the United States, the explosions on Bali and, most recently, the hostage crisis in Moscow - have defined the alliance's new goals.
These goals will affect its inner structural reform as well as the restructuring of the Czech Armed Forces. Jan Vana is head of the army's strategic planning department:
"After September 11th, we decided to invest more into bio-detection and bio identification. We also decided to focus more on special forces, to build our prevention capabilities and I also want to mention our common effort within the alliance to improve intelligence, surveillance and situation awareness which would help us to recognize a potential threat and to prevent it."
Aware of its strengths and weaknesses the Czech Republic has proposed greater specialization within NATO. Jan Vana again:
"We believe that there are two specific areas in which we excel and these are the identification and detection of chemical and biological weapons and agents and then our contribution to the electronic intelligence systems. These two areas we want to explore and exploit fully. Of course, we do not have the resources or the ambition to cover the entire spectrum of chemical defense and chemical protection. That field is very broad and we focus on several particular areas, but in cooperation with other NATO members we could help to build a sound chemical and biological defense system."
The proposal was discussed at the recent NATO summit in Prague - and was well received - among others by US President George Bush.
"In order for there to be an effective NATO some countries can specialize and provide excellence. A classic example is the Czech Republic's ability to deal with biological weapons, with the aftermath of a biological weapons attack. The Czech Republic is one of the best in the world at a chemical and biological response capability."
In addition to creating a professional army - the Czech military is working to establish a Joint Operation Centre - a body of government officials and military experts who would take over full command in the event of a crisis - be it a terrorist attack or a war.
"The joint operation center /JOC/ is one of the elements which will enable us to react quickly in a crisis, which might happen at any given moment. The JOC is here to analyze the situation and to have complete surveillance of what is going on. These people will decide how to best employ the resources at our immediate disposal. In an emergency we do not need three layers of staff. We need one focal point from which to control the situation and that will be the JOC. Under these circumstances the line between the decision makers and the army will be very short."
The only question that still remains open is how the Czech Republic will secure its air defense. Faced with a steep budget deficit in the wake of this year's floods, the Czech government has just cancelled a plan to buy 24 supersonic Gripen fighter jets and is searching for a less costly means of protecting the skies over the Czech Republic. One option that is being discussed is whether to leave the protection of Czech airspace in the hands of NATO allies. Jan Vana is a former jet pilot and he thinks this is not such a good idea .
"Here you must distinguish between a military and a non-military threat. As far as a military threat is concerned we believe that we are well covered by our membership in NATO. As a matter of fact NATO says that there is an abundance of fighter jets. Three thousand or so. In the event of a military threat they would be able to get here in time. We are prepared for such a scenario. We built two airbases to receive reinforcements when needed. The problem of this arrangement is that you need a long enough lead-in time. In the event of a military threat we would have the necessary lead in time because there is no threat in our immediate vicinity but - and here is the BUT - when you consider the possibility of a non-military threat, that is something like the September 11th attacks, which could happen at any given moment, the three thousand fighters a thousand miles away have limited value. And then you face a dilemma as a nation: you have the jets or you don't have them. You have them in the NATO framework but you do not have them when you need them. That is the bottom line of the problem. "
Another way of bridging the security vacuum is to lease older planes until the Czech Republic can afford new ones. And most recently, the Czech government has shown interest in working on a common air defense system with its eastern neighbour Slovakia. A decision is expected mid-December.
And finally, another important change that is slowly taking place in the army is a change of attitude. The Czech military has published a list of five basic values which it wants the new Czech army to embrace: they are RESPONSIBILITY, HONOUR, COURAGE, LOYALTY and SACRIFICE.
So, how strong is the Czech Army's commitment to NATO? Jan Vana again :
"It is like the creed of the three musketeers. You don't need to speak about it, but you know that this is the bottom line of the alliance. Whenever the interest of the alliance is threatened you are there and ready to help. And it is better to protect the interests of the alliance outside of its territory. Prevention is the key word."
