ABSTRACT
The decision radically to reform the armed forces was probably the most important defence decision made by the Czech government since the beginning of the 1990s. It was made in 2000 after a range of reorganisations, personnel reductions and structural changes had been executed without achieving the capabilities and qualities required by Alliance forces. The reform aims at the creation of small, sustainable and responsive forces with balanced air-ground and specification capabilities that are able to meet peacetime and contingency requirements and can respond to natural disasters (Czech Ministry of Defence, 2001). The change of the format from conscript to all-volunteer forces and the creation of a new demobilisation system were seen as ways of achieving that target. Substantial reductions in headquarters, military bases, garrisons and personnel – the process painfully impinging on lives of many military personnel and civilians – are necessary because of the financial expenditures of the reform. For at least the next five years, the increased military budget guaranteed by the Governmental Act of August 2001 was considered as conditio sine qua non of the reform.
