Czech Republic's strategic interest is in European stability and support for democracy

The security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area, coping with and preventing regional conflicts and ameliorating their repercussions, and strengthening the cohesion and effectiveness of the European Union and NATO are some of the strategic interests of the Czech Republic included in the country’s updated security strategy for 2015. The material will be discussed by the Czech Government today and the Czech News Agency has seen a copy of it.  

The document describes the starting points for the country’s security policy, the current security threats it faces, and the approach the state should take to face them. The updated strategy is based on previous documents from 2003 and 2011 and takes into account the transformation of the security environment, including key threats to the Euro-Atlantic area that have developed during the past four years.  

The new material also defines the country’s important vital security interests. Support for democracy, fundamental freedoms and the principles of the rule of law are considered its strategic interests.

During the past year, Czech foreign policy has been subjected to significant criticism from many sides due to the alleged muddying of support for those principles. However, the document assesses the probability that the Czech Republic is directly at risk of a large-scale military attack to be low.

"Security and stability in the border parts of Europe and in areas neighboring Europe, of course, has been reduced overall, and therefore a direct threat to the territories of the EU and NATO member states cannot be completely ruled out," states the strategy, which was drafted by the Czech Foreign Ministry. "Some of the primary sources of threats are extreme attitudes toward the values on which our society is based, endangering the concept of the democratic rule of law and denying fundamental human rights and freedoms."

Such threats, according to the material, could be posed either by a state or by various non-state groups. "The source of these threats lies in the power aspirations of several states that are, to a growing extent, no longer respecting the international order and the basic principles of international law," states the text, without specifying which countries those are.

It is this weakening of the mechanisms of international obligations in the area of security that the report calls one of the main security threats. "Some states are striving to revise the existing international order and are prepared to achieve their power aims by using the methods of hybrid warfare, which combines conventional and unconventional military means with non-military tools (propaganda exploiting both new and traditional media, intelligence disinformation actions, cyber-attacks, economic and political pressure, deploying members of the armed forces out of uniform)," reads the document, defining an approach that corresponds to Russia’s strategy against Ukraine.

It is precisely these unresolved conflicts in the immediate neighborhood that might have a direct or indirect influence over security in the Czech Republic, according to the material. Security could also be imperiled by cyber-attacks, the discontinuation of supplies of energy and other strategic resources, extremism, the negative impacts of international migration, organized crime, and terrorism.

Working in NATO and other international organizations is mentioned as a crucial means for ensuring the defense of the Czech Republic. In resolving conflicts. the report emphasizes prevention and the use of diplomatic and other nonviolent means.

"If prevention of crisis situations fails, or if efforts to resolve them peacefully fail, the Czech Republic will participate in the use of force in accordance with its obligations as part of the EU, NATO, and the principles of the UN Charter. In addition, the Czech Republic contributes, as per its capacity, civilian and military means to peacekeeping operations which may not be based on treaty obligations or a direct threat, but which are in accordance with its interests. The Czech Republic is prepared to participate in any eventual uses of force by the international community undertaken with the aim of preventing large-scale human rights violations, in particular, genocide and other crimes against humanity," the document states.