Volunteering and armed forces

The MA thesis "Volunteering in Armed Forces" focuses on describing and analysing the phenomenon of volunteering in relation to the voluntary service in the reserves of the armed forces. This topic is highly relevant in the Czech context, as there are long-term efforts made by the Czech Armed Forces to strengthen and enhance this specific component of national defense. In 2012 a new concept of reserves, the Active Reserve Concept (Koncepce aktivní zálohy) was finally approved by the Czech government. The first objective of this thesis is to shed some light on the general motivation of the volunteers to join the reserves and to show whether the incentives are mainly economic, socio-psychological or whether other factors are at play. In order to do this, the volunteering as such must first be defined as a phenomenon influencing the entire society. Then it is also necessary to show how volunteering related to national defense differs from other forms of volunteering. Next, the thesis illustrates how the system of active reserves works in a number of selected countries (Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States), where this model is applied for a long period of time and became widely accepted. The author points out the differences in national characteristics and other differences from the..