ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the evolution of the democratization of civil-military relations in the Czech Republic. It highlights the weaknesses that persist within the civilian democratic institutions of the Czech Republic that limit full achievement of democratic political control. Democratic political control of the Army of the Czech Republic is an indicator of the breadth and depth of the democratization process in the Czech Republic and in the region at large. The openness of glasnost revealed the fault lines of a regime tenuously held together by a corrupted communis! system. Those indoctrinated within it long knew that the reality of living under communism contrasted sharply with the ideal socialist state. The initial strategic concept prepared by the military, though never approved by Parliament, reflected the views of Colonel General Karel Pezl, the first Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic.
