1.
Lithuanian Air Force
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The Lithuanian Air Force or LAF is the military aviation branch of the Lithuanian armed forces. It is formed from professional military servicemen and non-military personnel, units are located at Šiauliai military airfield near the city Šiauliai, at Radviliškis and Kaunas. The first order for the creation of a Lithuanian army came on November 23,1918, in January 1919, an Engineering Company was formed within the military, which contained an Aviation Squad. On March 12,1919, the group was reorganized into an Aviation Company and its leader was appointed to be marine engineer officer Petras Petronis. This date is considered to be the birthday of the Lithuanian Air Force, between March and December 1919 and between 1932 and 1940, the Kaunas Military Aviation School operated in that city. The school trained officers in many disciplines, pilots, observers, gunners. The first aircraft was taken by the Lithuanian military from the Red Army, on February 5,1919, on February 27,1919, eight new reconnaissance aircraft, LVG C. VI, were received. They had been purchased in Germany, in June, five more aircraft were purchased. The Lithuanian Military Aviation was active in battles with the Red Army, the pilot performing the most military sorties was Jurgis Dobkevičius, who later became the first Lithuanian aircraft designer and builder. On May 12,1920, Vytautas Rauba was the first Lithuanian aviator to lose his life in an aircraft crash, on October 4 of the same year, in a fight with the Polish military, the first aircraft with a Lithuanian crew was shot down. The pilot of the aircraft, Juozas Kumpis, leader of Lithuanias First Air Squadron, was injured and died as prisoner of the Polish military. Starting in 1920 the military branch was renamed a number of times. The Lithuanian Air Force supported and encouraged various aeronautics related activities, in 1940, the Lithuanian Air Force consisted of eight Air Squadrons, including reconnaissance, fighter, bomber and training units. Air Force bases had been established in the cities and towns of Kaunas /Žagariškės, Šiauliai /Zokniai, in the summer time, airports in the cities of Palanga and Rukla were also used. A total of 117 aircraft and 230 pilots and observers were listed in the books at that time, on 23 January 1992, the Minister of Defense signed an order establishing the staff for the Aviation Base of the Aviation Service. This date is considered to be the Aviation Base foundation date, in February 1993 four L-39C Albatros aircraft were brought from Kyrgyzstan. The Lithuanian Air Force Headquarters and the Airspace Surveillance and Control Command are located in Kaunas, Air Base and Air Force Armament and Equipment Repair Depot are located in Šiauliai. The Air defence battalion, formed in 2000, is located in the Radviliškis district, the staff, aircraft and equipment of the Air Base participated in many international training missions abroad and at home
2.
Lithuanian Land Force
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The Lithuanian Land Forces form the backbone of the countrys defence force, capable of acting as an integral part of NATO forces. Lithuanian Land Forces consist of three brigades, the Engineer Battalion, and the National Defence Volunteers Division, the main element of the Land Forces is a single mechanised infantry brigade, the Iron Wolf Mechanised Infantry Brigade. This is formed around three mechanized infantry battalions and a battalion, all named after Lithuanian grand dukes as the tradition of the Lithuanian Armed Forces goes. The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Platoon is ready to participate in international operations, as an integral part of the Land Forces, the National Defence Volunteers have been developing since the beginning of the national movement for independence. To bring them up to NATO standards, current efforts focus on upgrading equipment and armaments, enhancing their operational effectiveness, the standard service assault rifle of the Lithuanian Armed Forces is the Heckler & Koch G36 and the standard pistol is the Glock 17. The Lithuanian Land Forces are also equipped with guns, including the GPMG MG-3, the FN MAG. The army also uses high-technology Lithuanian-made tactical automated commanding and controlling informational systems, Lithuanian Land Forces are formed from professional military servicemen and volunteers. In 2008 the minister of defence of Lithuania signed a law that ceased conscription in an effort to develop Lithuanias professional army. National defence is based on forces and mobilisation forces. The new minister plans to increase national defence capabilities by making all males from 18 to 24 take 7 week military basic training, after that the person will be added to the military reserves. The military conscription has been renewed in 2015 with a first draft of approx,3000 draftees including volunteers, who will be assigned to military units starting from August 2015 and will complete a 9-month basic training. The updated law specifies that a draft of 3000 soldiers annually will continue at least until 2020, Lithuania has participated in international missions in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Bosnia. The main force is currently in Afghanistan.0 Unported License, all relevant terms must be followed. Lithuanian Ministry of Defence site Stefan Marx, Lithuanias Defence Structure, Janes Intelligence Review, September 1993, p. 407–409
3.
Lithuanian Naval Force
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The Lithuanian Navy is the naval arm of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. Though formally established on 1 August 1935 its roots back as far as naval engagements on the Baltic Sea in the Medieval period. Although the origin of the Lithuanian Navy dates back to the period between World War I and II, the history of the involvement in naval battles existed earlier. The Baltic tribe of Aistians that settled down in the Baltic Sea shore built ships, furthermore, according to annals, in the 13th century other Baltic tribes, the Coronians and Samogitians, tried to destroy the castle of Riga coming by ships. It is also known about the Lithuanians’ victory in the battle in Nemunas River at the time when Duke Vytenis ruled the Duchy of Lithuania. But generally the loss of territories near the Baltic Sea had a impact on Lithuanias maritime development. After World War I, the Government of Lithuania attempted to establish a defense force. However, due to political and economical reasons, the maritime defense force was only partially implemented. In 1923, Lithuania gained the control of Klaipėda harbor and gradual development of the defense force started. The purchase of a minesweeper in 1927 was one of the first significant steps to implement Lithuanian Government aims, the ship was commissioned as the training ship Prezidentas Smetona. Captain Antanas Kaskelis was assigned as commanding officer. Several small boats carried out duties in Klaipėda harbor. On 1 August 1935, the commander in chief of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, General Stasys Rastikis, before the beginning of World War II on 22 March 1939 the region of Klaipėda was occupied by Germany. Once the war started Lithuanian naval ships were forced to leave Klaipėda for Liepāja harbor in Latvia, during the Soviet occupation, the Lithuanian Navy was attached to the Soviet Unions Baltic maritime defense force. The Prezidentas Smetona was renamed Korall and participated in the sea battles against Nazi Germanys Kriegsmarine, on 11 January 1945, the ship triggered a mine and sank in the Gulf of Finland. After the declaration of independence on 11 March 1990, Lithuania had to re-establish its sovereignty as well as organize the defense system. From that time the units of the Lithuanian armed forces were formed, on 4 July 1992, the Lithuanian Navy was re-established. Juozapas Algis Leisis was appointed as commander of the Coast Guard Squadron, in the fall of 1992, the Lithuanian Navy procured two Grisha class corvettes, Zemaitis and Aukstaitis
4.
Lithuanian Special Operations Force
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The Lithuanian Special Operations Force is a special operation unit of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, formed exclusively of carefully selected, motivated and specially trained professionals. The main tasks of the Special Operations Force are counter terrorism, special reconnaissance, SOF is formed from the Special Operations Unit. The structure of the Lithuanian Special Operations Force is flexible which makes it easy to form squadrons intended for operations and missions from its elements. The core of the Lithuanian SOF is, Special Purpose Service, Vytautas the Great Jaeger Battalion, Combat Divers Service, one of the main missions of the Lithuanian Special Operations Force is counter-terrorism operations beyond the territory of Lithuania. The SOF also carries out special missions, direct action, special reconnaissance, rescue of hostages. The SOF can be called upon inside the territory of Lithuania when law enforcement agencies lack necessary capabilities to react to terrorist attacks, soon after Lithuania re-established its independence from the Soviet Union on March 11,1990, the need arose to form armed units. One of the first such units was Aukščiausiosios Tarybos Apsaugos Skyrius, one of the main tasks of this unit was to protect the Lithuanian Parliament. In the following years, the Lithuanian army underwent various restructuring processes, unofficial formation of the Special Purpose Service was started in 1995, after two more years the Service was officially established. After the 9/11 terror attacks, the tasks of the Special Purpose Service became counter-terrorism, terrorist liquidation. Members of the Special Purpose Service are called Žaliukai, meaning green-men and were named after the Forest Brothers, after a 2007 reorganization, the Combat Divers Service was established, whose main task became special underwater and surface operations. Among the most secretive Lithuanian Special Operations Force units are referred to by the codename Aitvaras. The first public acknowledgment of the existence of Specialiųjų Operacijų Junginys Aitvaras was in 2000, the Lithuanian Special Operations Force units have participated in a number of missions. From 2002 to 2004 squadrons of the Aitvaras were deployed to the Enduring Freedom operation in Afghanistan, preparedness and execution of tasks by the SOF squadrons have been especially noted by the coalition partners. From 2005 to 2006, the Lithuanian Special Operations Force was on the operational half-year stand-by period in the NATO Response Force, since the autumn 2007, SOF have taken part in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force mission in southern Afghanistan. In 2008 soldiers of the SOF continued their service in the NATO Response Force
5.
Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces
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The National Defence Volunteer Forces or NDVF is an important part of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. This decision made legal already existing volunteer formations that began appearing as early as 1990, Voluntary National Defence Service was reorganised into the National Defence Volunteer Force. In 2003 Volunteer Force was integrated into the Lithuanian Land Force, there are around 5000 volunteers and around 800 professional soldiers in the force. By the end of 1991 all units of the National Defence System were formed on a voluntary basis, in March 1991 the VNDS staff, an operational platoon, the VNDS Training Centre were formed as well as 200 company size units were organised into eight territorial defence regions. In accordance with an issued by Director General of Department of National Defence. During the 1991 Soviet coup détat attempt, volunteer serviceman Artūras Sakalauskas lost his life in the line of duty when defending the Lithuanian Supreme Council on 21 August. Once the coup détat was defeated, NDVS units received an order to block the Soviet forces in order to prevent them from bringing replacement troops from Russia into Lithuania, at that time forty-four guard posts were installed where 201 NDVS members would simultaneously stand on duty. At the end of 1991, the Volunteer Forces embarked upon the protection of strategic assets. Volunteer units provided support to authorities in the event of natural or industrial disasters. They also took part in activities during the flood of the Nemunas Delta in the Western part of Lithuania. In 1993, during a visit of Pope John Paul II to Lithuania, as of 1994 members of the Volunteer Forces have been participating international peacekeeping missions. In 1998 the Voluntary National Defence Service was reorganised as the National Defence Volunteer Forces, KASP – in Lithuanian), since 2004 the Lithuanian Grand Duke Butigeidis Dragoon Battalion has been assigned to the Volunteer Forces. On 1 July 2005 the 9th Territorial Unit of the Kęstutis Military District of the Volunteer Force was restructured. The force units and members have placed under the control of the 3rd Territorial Unit of the Žemaičiai military District. On 1 September 2005 the 4th Territorial Unit of Tauras Military District was restructured, all relevant terms must be followed.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed.0 Unported License, all relevant terms must be followed. Ministry of National Defence Republic of Lithuania Military of Lithuania
6.
Vilnius
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Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and its largest city, with a population of 542,664 as of 2015. Vilnius is located in the southeast part of Lithuania and is the second largest city in the Baltic states, Vilnius is the seat of the main government institutions of Lithuania as well as of the Vilnius District Municipality. Vilnius is classified as a Gamma global city according to GaWC studies and its Jewish influence until the 20th century has led to it being described as the Jerusalem of Lithuania and Napoleon named it the Jerusalem of the North as he was passing through in 1812. In 2009, Vilnius was the European Capital of Culture, together with the Austrian city of Linz, the name of the city originates from the Vilnia River. The city has also known by many derivate spellings in various languages throughout its history. The most notable names for the city include, Polish, Wilno, Belarusian, Вiльня, German, Wilna, Latvian, Viļņa, Russian, Вильнюс, Yiddish, ווילנע , Czech. A Russian name from the time of the Russian Empire was Вильна/Вильно, the name Vilna is still used in Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew. Wilna is still used in German, along with Vilnius, the neighborhoods of Vilnius also have names in other languages, which represent the languages spoken by various ethnic groups in the area. Historian Romas Batūra identifies the city with Voruta, one of the castles of Mindaugas, during the reign of Vytenis a city started to emerge from a trading settlement and the first Franciscan Catholic church was built. These letters contain the first unambiguous reference to Vilnius as the capital, According to legend, Gediminas dreamt of an iron wolf howling on a hilltop and consulted a pagan priest for its interpretation. He was told, What is destined for the ruler and the State of Lithuania, is thus, the Iron Wolf represents a castle and a city which will be established by you on this site. This city will be the capital of the Lithuanian lands and the dwelling of their rulers, the location offered practical advantages, it lay within the Lithuanian heartland at the confluence of two navigable rivers, surrounded by forests and wetlands that were difficult to penetrate. The duchy had been subject to intrusions by the Teutonic Knights, Vilnius was the flourishing capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the residence of the Grand Duke. Gediminas expanded the Grand Duchy through warfare along with strategic alliances and marriages, at its height it covered the territory of modern-day Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Transnistria, and portions of modern-day Poland and Russia. His grandchildren Vytautas the Great and Jogaila, however, fought civil wars, during the Lithuanian Civil War of 1389–1392, Vytautas besieged and razed the city in an attempt to wrest control from Jogaila. The two later settled their differences, after a series of treaties culminating in the 1569 Union of Lublin, the rulers of this federation held either or both of two titles, Grand Duke of Lithuania or King of Poland. In 1387, Jogaila acting as a Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Władysław II Jagiełło, the city underwent a period of expansion. The Vilnius city walls were built for protection between 1503 and 1522, comprising nine city gates and three towers, and Sigismund August moved his court there in 1544
7.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
8.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
9.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
10.
Finland
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Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, however, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian
11.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
12.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
13.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
14.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
15.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
16.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
17.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
18.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
19.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
20.
Lithuanian partisans
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The Lithuanian partisans were partisans who waged a guerrilla warfare in Lithuania against the Soviet Union in 1944–1953. Similar anti-Soviet resistance groups, also known as Forest Brothers and cursed soldiers, fought against Soviet rule in Estonia, Latvia, Poland and it is estimated that a total of 30,000 Lithuanian partisans and their supporters were killed. At the end of World War II, the Red Army pushed the Eastern Front towards Lithuania, the Soviets invaded and occupied Lithuania by the end of 1944. As forced conscription into Red Army and Stalinist repressions intensified, thousands of Lithuanians used forests in the countryside as a natural refuge and these spontaneous groups became more organized and centralized culminating in the establishment of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters in February 1948. In their documents, the partisans emphasized that their goal is recreation of independent Lithuania. As the partisan war continued, it clear that the West would not interfere in Eastern Europe. Eventually, the made a explicit and conscious decision not to accept any new members. The leadership of the partisans was destroyed in 1953 thus effectively ending the partisan war, Lithuania had regained its independence in 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire. As pre-war tensions rose in Europe, Nazi Germany and Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, subsequently, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940. The Soviets instituted Sovietization policies and repressions, in June 1941, the Soviets deported over 17,000 Lithuanians for forced labor to remote areas in Siberia. When a few days later Germany launched an invasion of Russia, initially, the Lithuanians greeted the Germans as liberators from the repressive Soviet rule and made plans to reestablish independent Lithuania. However, the attitudes soon changed as the occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany continued, in 1944, the Nazi authorities created a 10, 000-strong Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force under General Povilas Plechavičius to combat Soviet partisans led by Antanas Sniečkus and Polish partisans. The Germans, however, quickly came to see this force as a nationalist threat to their occupation regime, the senior staff were arrested on May 15,1944, and General Plechavičius was deported to the concentration camp in Salaspils, Latvia. These men formed the basis for the Lithuanian partisans, the resistance in Lithuania was well organized, and the uniformed with chain of command guerrilla units were effectively able to control whole regions of the countryside until 1949. Their armaments included Czech Skoda guns, Russian Maxim heavy machine guns, assorted mortars, captured Lithuanian Forest Brothers themselves often faced torture and summary execution while their relatives faced deportation to Siberia. Reprisals against pro-Soviet farms and villages were harsh, the NKVD units, Destruction battalions used shock tactics to discourage further resistance such as displaying executed partisans corpses in village courtyards. In the first year of the warfare, while World War II was still ongoing. Men avoided conscription to the Red Army and instead hid in the forests, not all groups were armed or intended to actively fight the Soviets
21.
Bosnian War
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The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following a number of violent incidents in early 1992, the war is commonly viewed as having started on 6 April 1992, the war ended on 14 December 1995. The war was part of the breakup of Yugoslavia and this was rejected by the political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, who had boycotted the referendum. The Croats also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian, Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre later became iconic of the conflict. After the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force targeting the positions of the Army of the Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war. The war was brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia, Peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio and were finalised on 21 November 1995. According to a report compiled by the UN, and chaired by M, the report echoed conclusions published by a Central Intelligence Agency estimate in 1995. By early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted 45 Serbs,12 Croats and 4 Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia, the most recent estimates suggest that around 100,000 people were killed during the war. Over 2.2 million people were displaced, making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of World War II, in addition, an estimated 12, 000–20,000 women were raped, most of them Bosniak. There is debate over the date of the Bosnian War. Mulaj reports that Misha Glenny gives a date of 22 March, Tom Gallagher gives 2 April, while Mary Kaldor and Laura Silber, philip Hammond claimed that the most common view is that the war started on 6 April 1992. The Sijekovac killings of Serbs took place on 26 March and the Bijeljina massacre on 1–2 April. Some Bosniaks consider the first casualties of the war to be Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came about as a result of the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A crisis emerged in Yugoslavia as a result of the weakening of the system at the end of the Cold War. In Yugoslavia, the national communist party, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, was losing its ideological potency, meanwhile, ethnic nationalism experienced a renaissance in the 1980s, after violence broke out in Kosovo. While the goal of Serbian nationalists was the centralisation of Yugoslavia, other nationalities in Yugoslavia aspired to the federalisation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former Ottoman province, has historically been a multi-ethnic state. According to the 1991 census, 44% of the population considered themselves Muslim,32. 5% Serb and 17% Croat, with 6% describing themselves as Yugoslav. In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after the adoption of amendments to the Serbian Constitution which allowed the government of Serbia to dominate the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina
22.
2003 invasion of Iraq
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The 2003 invasion of Iraq lasted from 20 March to 1 May 2003 and signalled the start of the Iraq War, which was dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States. 160,000 troops were sent by the Coalition into Iraq, during the invasion phase. About 130,000 were sent from the USA alone, with about 28,000 British soldiers, Australia,36 other countries were involved in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion,100,000 U. S. troops were assembled in Kuwait by 18 February, the coalition forces also received support from Kurdish irregulars in Iraqi Kurdistan. Others place a greater emphasis on the impact of the September 11 attacks, and the role this played in changing U. S. strategic calculations. The invasion of Iraq was strongly opposed by some long-standing U. S. allies, including the governments of France, Germany, and New Zealand. Their leaders argued that there was no evidence of weapons of destruction in Iraq. According to the French academic Dominique Reynié, between 3 January and 12 April 2003,36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war. The invasion was preceded by an airstrike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on 20 March 2003, the following day, coalition forces launched an incursion into Basra Province from their massing point close to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. Massive air strikes across the country and against Iraqi command and control threw the army into chaos. The main body of forces continued their drive into the heart of Iraq. Most of the Iraqi military was defeated and Baghdad was occupied on 9 April. Other operations occurred against pockets of the Iraqi army, including the capture and occupation of Kirkuk on 10 April, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the central leadership went into hiding as the coalition forces completed the occupation of the country. On 1 May, an end of combat operations was declared, ending the invasion period. Hostilities of the 1991 Gulf War were suspended on 28 February 1991 and it was revealed that a biological weapons program in Iraq had begun in the early 1980s with help from the U. S. and Europe in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972. The investigation concluded there was no evidence the program had continued after the war. The U. S. and its allies then maintained a policy of containment towards Iraq, Iraqi military helicopters and planes regularly contested the no-fly zones. In October 1998, removing the Saddam regime became official U. S. foreign policy with enactment of the Iraq Liberation Act
23.
Kosovo Force
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The Kosovo Force is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-led international peacekeeping force which was responsible for establishing a secure environment in Kosovo. KFOR entered Kosovo on 12 June 1999, two days after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, at the time, Kosovo was facing a grave humanitarian crisis, with military forces from the FRY and the KLA in daily engagement. According to NATO, Serb forces had committed ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians, nearly one million people had fled Kosovo as refugees. KFOR has gradually transferred responsibilities to the Kosovo Police and other local authorities, as of 23 May 2016, KFOR consisted of 4,600 troops. The Contact Group countries have said publicly that KFOR will remain in Kosovo to provide the security necessary to support the provisions of a settlement of Kosovos status. KFOR contingents were originally grouped into 4 regionally based multinational brigades, the brigades were responsible for a specific area of operations, but under a single chain of command under the authority of Commander KFOR. At its height, KFOR troops numbered 50,000 and came from 39 different NATO and non-NATO nations, the official KFOR website indicated that in 2008 a total 14,000 soldiers from 34 countries were participating in KFOR. The following is a list of the number of troops which have participated in the KFOR mission. According to Amnesty International, most women trafficked into Kosovo from abroad are from Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, since the KFOR entered Kosovo in June 1999,168 NATO soldiers have been killed, mostly in accidents. On 19 October 2004, it was confirmed that 115 NATO soldiers had killed during the operation. After that 50 more NATO soldiers were confirmed to have died, eight UNMIK police officers have been killed in Kosovo since 1999, in addition to the KFOR fatalities. The fatalities by country are,3 American,1 Indian,1 Jordanian,1 Nigerian,1 Ghanaian and 1 Ukrainian police officer, in July 2011, following the Kosovo Polices attempts to seize two border outposts and consequent clashes that followed, KFOR troops intervened. In 2013, KFOR was involved in an operation of the last restaurant bears in Kosovo. The bears are now kept at the Bear Sanctuary Prishtina, KFOR Placemap KFOR official site K-For, The task ahead First deaths in K-For operation Memorial honors soldiers sacrifices June 2002,68 soldiers have died since KFOR entered Kosovo. Nato force feeds Kosovo sex trade Radio KFOR
24.
EUTM Mali
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EUTM Mali is a European Union multinational military training mission headquartered in Bamako, Mali, which is training and advising the military of Mali. EUTM Mali will not be involved in operations in the north of the country. 22 European nations are engaged in mission and have sent soldiers to the Republic of Mali. EUTM Mali is one of the elements of a global approach organized by the EU in Mali defined within the Strategy for the security and this mission is within the frame of international law, in order to sustain the effort of the modernization of the Malian Army. What is at stake is to improve MAF’s military capacities and their efficiency in order to them, under the civilian command. End of August budget data reveals that EUTM common costs raise up to €23.4 million for the 15 months mandate, considering the mission cost and its possible positive impact in short and long term, the conclusion is that the expense is an efficient one. This budget covers what is called common costs and which permits the functioning of the chief of state and to pay for the particular competences, every country is responsible for the shipment of materials and the costs of their soldiers. Besides these common costs, it has to be consider that every contributing nation pay its own troop expenses, the EU Member States, under the Mechanism Athena rules, only pay for those expenses eligible as common costs. Military Missions within CSDP are not paid by the regular EU budget and this FHQ is in Koulikoro,60 km north of Bamako. These 200 soldiers are in charge of the chain, advice of the local authorities, medical support, medical evacuation. Besides, there is a cell in Brussels in charge of assuring coordination. They have effectively started their mission on 2 April for the formation and 29 April for the specialists. The average duration of the formation of unit would be 10 weeks. To train the four units 10 months will be necessary, EUTM Mali’s goal is to instruct first of all the new battalions out of forces in reserve, then the battalions coming from the front after the rotation. We can envisage, as the Malian authorities have asked us for, however, that circumstance will not change the concept of the instruction. Furthermore, EUTM Mali will offer advice and assistance to the Malian Ministry of Defense and this is one of the pillars of the EUTM mission. The European officers will work in coordination with their Malian homologues. The chronological succession of events is as follow, On 10 December 2012, on 24 December 2012, there was an official petition of deployment of the EUTM made by the Malian Interim President Dioncounda Traoré
25.
Operation Atalanta
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The operational headquarters is located at Northwood Headquarters in the UK. The mission launched in December 2008 with a focus on protecting Somalia-bound vessels and shipments belonging to the WFP and AMISOM, in addition, Operation Atalanta monitors fishing activity on the regional seaboard. On 16 July 2012, the EU also mandated the EUCAP Nestor mission to build up the capacity of regional navies. It is part of a global action by the EU to prevent. It cooperates with the multinational Combined Task Force 151 of the US-led Combined Maritime Forces, on 28 November 2016 the Council of the EU extended the Mandate of Operation ATALANTA until December 2018. Participation in EU NAVFOR goes beyond EU member states, norway was the first non-EU country to contribute to the Operation, with a warship in 2009. Thereafter, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine have provided staff officers to the Operational Headquarters, Ukraine contributed a warship early in 2014, and New Zealand contributed an MPRA asset later the same year. Around 1,200 personnel are involved in ATALANTA, with the size of the force typically varying between 4–6 surface combat vessels and 2–3 Maritime Patrol Aircraft, for 2016, the budget will be €6.3 million for the common costs of the mandate. Piracy has to be understood as organised criminal activity occurring at sea and it is organised on land, with kidnapping crews and ships for ransom as the business model. Prosecution of piracy suspects is a key component of the fight against piracy. The EU NAVFOR seeks, where possible, a legal finish, transfers of suspect pirates for trial to competent authorities remain necessary to put an end to impunity in the Indian Ocean. The EU is the largest contributor to the UNODC counter-piracy programme, in the short term, transfers for trial from EU NAVFOR ships remain necessary to put an end to impunity in the Indian Ocean. The measure, which was sponsored by France, the United States, on 2 January 2009, one of the Operations ships captured eight pirates who were about to board a ship. The French ship responded to the message by the 21,000 tonne Liberia flagged MV Safmarine Asia which came under small arms. The warship deployed its helicopter, which arrived on the scene, to deter the hijacking. On 26 May 2009, the EU Naval Task Force vessel HMS Malmö responded to a call from the European cargo vessel M/V Antonis. In May 2010, there were a number of incidents in the area, the Russian destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov freed the 106, 474-ton MV Moscow University, which was about 350 miles east of Socotra, transporting crude oil from Sudan to China. Reports on these incidents, citing news reports, concluded that pirates were holding almost 20 vessels
26.
Operation Sangaris
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Operation Sangaris is a military intervention of the French military in the Central African Republic, from late 2013 till 2016. It has been the 7th French military intervention since the independence of the country in 1960, on 30 October 2016, France announced it officially ended Operation Sangaris. In late 2012, President François Bozizé requested international aid from France and the USA to fend off the Séléka, the Séléka is a Muslim and Northern movement fighting the Catholic South. In March 2013, Michel Djotodia ousted Bozizé from power and became the first Muslim President of the country, in October 2013, fighting broke out between Séléka elements and Christian self-defence militias called anti-balakas, and the State lost its ability to maintain order. The United Nations and the French government started voicing concerns of potential genocide, the MISCA is supported by French forces authorised to use any necessary means. From 24 November 2013, around 30 personnel of the 25e régiment du génie de lair and this aimed at making the airport suitable for the arrival of the French force and its likely reinforcements. On 28 November 2013, the BPC Dixmude, escorted by aviso Commandant LHerminier, reached Douala harbour in Cameroon, ferrying 350 soldiers of the 11th Parachute Brigade and two Gazelle helicopters. From 1 December, elements of the operational reserve aboard Dixmude started landing operations, parking trucks, VAB, in the following days, a dozen Antonov An-124 rotations ferried the logistical and support matériel for their installation. The 25th Air Engineering Regiment is the first engineering unit to be deployed, from 5 to 8 December, while the French forces were deploying, violent fighting broke out between Séléka and Anti-balaka. Amnesty International reported around 1000 Christians and 60 Muslims killed in two days, none of the French soldiers nor of the civilians they were protecting was harmed during the exchange. Within the first 24 hours of Sangaris, the number of French troops doubled to reach 1200, on 7 December, the French military secured the capital city of Bangui, with difficulty as sporadic fighting was still ongoing. Meanwhile, an operation from Cameroon allowed the French to secure the city of Bouar. By the end of the summit, the African Union had committed to increase the MISCA to 6000 men, on the 6th, the Épervier Force, base in Chad, provided a C130 Hercules and a CN-235 CASA to airlift reinforcements from Libreville to Bangui. The same day, French forces started patrolling across Bangui, mounted or on foot, some patrols were mixed with elements of the MISCA. In the night of the 6 to 7 December, the troops landed by Dixmude crossed the Central-African border, the reconnaissance detachment, around 100-man strong, reached Bossangoa without encountering resistance, but witnesses important numbers of refugees. Rafales from Ndjamena conducted air patrols and low-altitude shows of force above Bangui and Bossangoa to signal the French presence, from the 7th, the Sangaris Force was further reinforced with helicopters, comprising two Gazelles and four Pumas. In the following hours, an Antonov An-124 ferrying two Fennecs from Vélizy – Villacoublay Air Base and Orange-Caritat Air Base arrived, on the 8th, the French headquarters announced that the Bouar-Bossembélé road had been opened without resistance. On 8 December 2013, Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Defence Minister, in the night of the 9 to 10 December, an incident between French forces and gunmen caused the death of two soldiers of the 8th RPIMa
27.
EU Navfor Med
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The operational headquarters is located in Rome. EUNAVFOR Med consists of three phases, The first phase focuses on surveillance and assessment of human smuggling and trafficking networks in the Mediterranean, the second stage of the operation provides for the search and, if necessary, diversion of suspicious vessels. The third phase would allow the disposal of vessels and related assets, preferably before use, more than 13,000 migrants have been rescued from the sea in the course of the operation. Training of the Libyan coastguards and navy contributing to the implementation of the UN arms embargo on the seas off the coast of Libya. Operation Mare Nostrum Operation Triton European migration crisis Migrant vessels on the Mediterranean Sea EUNAVFOR MED EU agrees on Naval intervention Factsheet EU navfor med
28.
MINUSMA
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The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali is a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. MINUSMA was established on 25 April 2013 by UN Security Council Resolution 2100 to stabilise the country after the Tuareg rebellion and it was officially deployed on 1 July. In 2012, Tuareg and other peoples in northern Malis Azawad region started an insurgency in the north under the banner of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. Following the coup, the rebels made advances to capture the three biggest cities in the north, Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal. The group is expected to play a role in the 2013 Malian presidential election, the force is the third largest UN peacekeeping force in operation in the world. Its headquarters are in the Malian capital, Bamako, military intelligence will be evaluated by ASIFU. The force is led by Belgian Major General Jean-Paul Deconinck, IAI Heron UAV deployed from November 2016. On 13 December, two Senegalese peacekeepers were killed at a bombing outside the Malian Solidarity Bank in Kidal a day before the round of the Malian parliamentary election,2013. U. N. Peacekeeping chief Hervé Ladsous also spoke to the UNSC from Bamako and he further noted that the UN was no longer working in a peacekeeping environment, but sought to increase protection of the mission’s staff, equipment and bases. A total of at least 44 troops have been killed due to hit and run attacks and bombings by Islamist groups during the ongoing conflict
29.
Conscription
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Conscription, or drafting, is the compulsory enlistment of people in a national service, most often a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1–8 years on active duty and those conscripted may evade service, sometimes by leaving the country. As of the early 21st century, many no longer conscript soldiers. The ability to rely on such an arrangement, however, presupposes some degree of predictability with regard to both war-fighting requirements and the scope of hostilities, many states that have abolished conscription therefore still reserve the power to resume it during wartime or times of crisis. Around the reign of Hammurabi, the Babylonian Empire used a system of conscription called Ilkum, under that system those eligible were required to serve in the royal army in time of war. During times of peace they were required to provide labour for other activities of the state. In return for service, people subject to it gained the right to hold land. It is possible that this right was not to hold land per se, various forms of avoiding military service are recorded. While it was outlawed by the Code of Hammurabi, the hiring of substitutes appears to have practiced both before and after the creation of the code. Later records show that Ilkum commitments could become regularly traded, in other places, people simply left their towns to avoid their Ilkum service. Another option was to sell Ilkum lands and the commitments along with them, with the exception of a few exempted classes, this was forbidden by the Code of Hammurabi. The levies raised in this way fought as infantry under local superiors, although the exact laws varied greatly depending on the country and the period, generally these levies were only obliged to fight for one to three months. Most were subsistence farmers, and it was in everyones interest to send the men home for harvest-time, the bulk of the Anglo-Saxon English army, called the fyrd, was composed of part-time English soldiers drawn from the landowning minor nobility. These thegns were the aristocracy of the time and were required to serve with their own armour. Medieval levy in Poland was known as the pospolite ruszenie, the system of military slaves was widely used in the Middle East, beginning with the creation of the corps of Turkish slave-soldiers by the Abbasid caliph al-Mutasim in the 820s and 830s. In the middle of the 14th century, Ottoman Sultan Murad I developed personal troops to be loyal to him, the new force was built by taking Christian children from newly conquered lands, especially from the far areas of his empire, in a system known as the devşirme
30.
Cold War II
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Cold War II, also called the New Cold War, Second Cold War and Cold War 2. This is akin to the original Cold War that saw a confrontation between the Western Bloc led by the United States and the Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union. American political scientist Robert Legvold posits that the ″new Cold War began the moment we went over the cliff, kuchins in 2016, believe that the term is ″unsuited to the present conflict, ″ but the situation is arguably more dangerous than during the original Cold War. Past sources, such as academics Fred Halliday and David S. Painter used the terms to refer to the 1979–1985. Michael Klare, a RealClearPolitics writer and an academic, in June 2013 compared tensions between Russia and the West to the ongoing conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The term Cold War II has therefore been described as a misnomer, tensions escalated in 2014 after Russias annexation of Crimea, and military intervention in Ukraine. Some observers − including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad − judged the Syrian Civil War to be a war between Russia and the US, and even a proto-world war. In January 2016, senior UK government officials were reported to have registered their growing fears that a new war was now unfolding in Europe. Right across the EU we are seeing alarming evidence of Russian efforts to unpick the fabric of European unity on a range of vital strategic issues. ”In an interview with TIME in December 2014. In April 2015, CNN reported that hackers had penetrated sensitive parts of the White House computers in recent months. It was said that the FBI, the Secret Service, and other U. S. intelligence agencies categorized the attacks among the most sophisticated attacks ever launched against U. S. government systems. ”Similarly, Igor Zevelev, CNN opined, Its not a new Cold War. Its not even a deep chill, meanwhile, the United States government accused the Russian government of interfering in the 2016 United States elections. The US intelligence community stated that Putin and the Russian Government developed a preference for President-elect Trump. Their assessment was made with high confidence, Russia said it had no involvement. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said that Russia was not involved in the leaks, director of National Intelligence James R. President Barack Obama used the red line to directly contact Vladimir Putin. On December 29,2016, the U. S, in January 2017, a former government adviser Molly K. McKew said at Politico that the US would win the new Cold War if the War happens. Heer also criticized McKew for supporting the possibility, josh Keefe of International Business Times wrote that an increasing military presence in Eastern Europe led multiple US and Russian experts to fret about a new Cold War
31.
Lithuania
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Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in Northern Europe. One of the three Baltic states, it is situated along the shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.9 million people as of 2015, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. For centuries, the shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, the King of Lithuania, and the first unified Lithuanian state, with the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772–95, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuanias territory. As World War I neared its end, Lithuanias Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, in the midst of the Second World War, Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end and the Germans retreated, Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, a full member of the Eurozone, Schengen Agreement and NATO. It is also a member of the Nordic Investment Bank, the United Nations Human Development Index lists Lithuania as a very high human development country. Lithuania has been among the fastest growing economies in the European Union and is ranked 21st in the world in the Ease of Doing Business Index, the first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC. Over a millennium, the Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population, the first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009. Initially inhabited by fragmented Baltic tribes, in the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, after his assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded rapidly, by the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. The geopolitical situation between the west and the east determined the multicultural and multi-confessional character of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the ruling elite practised religious tolerance and Chancery Slavonic language was used as an auxiliary language to the Latin for official documents. In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Polands offer to become its king, Jogaila embarked on gradual Christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. It implied that Lithuania, the fiercely independent land, was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity, after two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became the Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. During his reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its expansion, centralization of the state began
32.
Search and rescue
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Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, International Search and Rescue Advisory Group is a UN organization that promotes the exchange of information between national urban search and rescue organizations. The duty to render assistance is covered by Article 98 of the UNCLOS, there are many different definitions of search and rescue, depending on the agency involved. Canadian Forces, Search and Rescue comprises the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. United States Coast Guard, The use of resources to assist persons or property in potential or actual distress. One of the worlds earliest well-documented SAR efforts ensued following the 1656 wreck of the Dutch merchant ship Vergulde Draeck off the west coast of Australia, survivors sought help, and in response three separate SAR missions were conducted, without success. All 5 crew members of an oil barge, which had run aground on Penfield Reef, were saved before the barge sank, in 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 with 269 occupants was shot down by a Soviet aircraft near Sakhalin. The Soviets sent SAR helicopters and boats to Soviet waters, while a search, South Korean, and Japanese ships and aircraft in international waters, but no survivors were found. In July 2009, Air France Flight 447 was lost in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, an international SAR effort was launched, to no avail. A third effort nearly two years later discovered the site and recovered the black boxes. In early 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 crashed under mysterious circumstances, many nations contributed to the initial SAR effort, which was fruitless. 3mn to date on fuel and food in its own effort. The search for Flight 370 has become the largest SAR so far with the largest budget, mountain rescue relates to search and rescue operations specifically in rugged and mountainous terrain. Ground search and rescue is the search for persons who are lost or in distress on land or inland waterways, some ground search teams also employ search and rescue dogs. Urban search and rescue, also referred to as Heavy Urban Search and Rescue, is the location and rescue of persons from collapsed buildings or other urban and industrial entrapments. Due to the nature of the work, most teams are multi-disciplinary and include personnel from police, fire. While earthquakes have traditionally been the cause of US&R operations, terrorist attacks, combat search and rescue is search and rescue operations that are carried out during war that are within or near combat zones. Air-sea rescue refers to the use of aircraft and surface vessels, to search for. This treaty contains the definition of high seas, at Article 1, International Search and Rescue Advisory Group is a UN organization that promotes the exchange of information between national urban search and rescue organizations
33.
Lithuanian State Border Guard Service
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Since December 21,2007, Lithuania is part of the Schengen Area and SBGS, partner of Frontex, controls about 1,070 kilometres of Areas external land border with Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus. Following the declaration of independence on February 16,1918, Lithuania had to ensure its border protection and this was a difficult task to fulfill, because the borders were changing, and the bodies protecting the border were changing as well. The formation of the first border regiment was started on 1 February 1920, on 26 January 1922, the Lithuanian defence minister, Jonas Šimkus, issued an order designating 29 June as Border Regiment Day. At that time, border regiments protected the border, and the State Border Police was formed in the Klaipėda Region on 18 June 1923. Later, border regiments, units of the Ministry of Defence, were disbanded, before the first Soviet occupation, the number of Lithuanian border police was not large,1,656 policemen in 1931 and 1,934 in 1933. This strength was maintained until June 1940 when the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania, after that, some border guards were subject to political persecution, the border police was disbanded, and the Red Army took control of the Lithuanian border with Nazi Germany. Near the end of World War II, the Soviets occupied Lithuania for the second time, throughout their rule, they protected only the Lithuanian border with the Peoples Republic of Poland. After Lithuania restored its independence on March 11,1990, it had to ensure the protection, by a resolution of 3 April 1990, the Supreme Council assigned the Council of Ministers the task of establishing the Department of Defence thus initiating the formation of new state border guards. On 10 September 1990, the Government adopted a resolution with a view to forming services at the Ministry of Defence that were to ensure the protection of the Lithuanian borders. On 10 October 1990, the Government adopted a resolution to establish 61 border posts and these posts were to begin operation by 19 November, but due to lack of resources and personnel not all of them operated as intended. On 19 May 1991, Gintaras Žagunis, an officer at the Krakūnai border crossing point at the Lithuania–Belarus border, was dead while on duty. On 31 July 1991, seven Lithuanian officers were killed in Medininkai border point, the only survivor, Tomas Šernas, became disabled. The attacks on Lithuanian border posts continued until the attempted August Coup in Moscow on 23 August 1991, the Ministry of Defence issued an order by which the Frontier Guard Service was renamed as the State Border Guard Service, starting 6 August 1992. When the last Soviet soldier left Lithuania on 31 August 1993, on 18 July 1994, the Government adopted a resolution that restructured the State Border Guard Service at the Ministry of Defence into the Border Police Department at the Ministry of the Interior. As during the period, guarding of the Lithuanian borders became the duty of a border police. After the system of border guarding was restored, the status of the state border had to be defined. The Treaty on Restoration of the State Border between Lithuania and Latvia was signed on 29 June 1993 and it required a considerable diplomatic effort to conclude and sign a treaty on the state border with Belarus on 6 February 1995. A similar treaty was signed with Poland the same year, the treaty on delimitation of the state border between Lithuania and the Russian Federation was signed during a summit in Moscow on 24 October 1997
34.
Smuggling
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There are various motivations to smuggle. Examples of non-financial motivations include bringing banned items past a security checkpoint or the removal of classified documents from a government or corporate office, Smuggling is a common theme in literature, from Bizets opera Carmen to the James Bond spy books Diamonds are Forever and Goldfinger. The verb smuggle, from Low German schmuggeln or Dutch smokkelen, apparently a frequentative formation of a meaning to sneak. Smuggling has a long and controversial history, probably dating back to the first time at which duties were imposed in any form, in England smuggling first became a recognised problem in the 13th century, following the creation of a national customs collection system by Edward I in 1275. Medieval smuggling tended to focus on the export of highly taxed export goods — notably wool, merchants also, however, sometimes smuggled other goods to circumvent prohibitions or embargoes on particular trades. Most studies of historical smuggling have been based on official sources — such as court records, according to Dr Evan Jones, the trouble with these is that they only detail the activities of those dumb enough to get caught. This has led him and others, such as Prof Huw Bowen to use records to reconstruct smuggling businesses. Grain smuggling by members of the elite, often working closely with corrupt customs officers, has also been shown to have been prevalent in East Anglia during the later 16th century. In England wool was smuggled to the continent in the 17th century, the principal reason for the high duty was the need for the government to finance a number of extremely expensive wars with France and the United States. The thievery was boasted about and romanticized until it seemed a kind of heroism and it did not have any taint of criminality and the whole of the south coast had pockets vying with one another over whose smugglers were the darkest or most daring. The Smugglers Inn was one of the commonest names for a bar on the coast, in Henley Road, smuggling in colonial times was a reaction to the heavy taxes and regulations imposed by mercantilist trade policies. After American independence in 1783, smuggling developed at the edges of the United States at places like Passamaquoddy Bay, St. Marys in Georgia, Lake Champlain, and Louisiana. During Thomas Jeffersons embargo of 1807-1809, these places became the primary places where goods were smuggled out of the nation in defiance of the law. Like Britain, a gradual liberalization of laws as part of the free trade movement meant less smuggling. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt tried to cut down on smuggling by establishing the Roosevelt Reservation along the United States-Mexico Border, Smuggling revived in the 1920s during Prohibition, and drug smuggling became a major problem after 1970. In the 1990s, when sanctions were imposed on Serbia. The state unofficially allowed this to continue or otherwise the entire economy would have collapsed, much smuggling occurs when enterprising merchants attempt to supply demand for a good or service that is illegal or heavily taxed. As a result, illegal trafficking, and the smuggling of weapons, as well as the historical staples of smuggling, alcohol
35.
Communications security
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Communications security is the discipline of preventing unauthorized interceptors from accessing telecommunications in an intelligible form, while still delivering content to the intended recipients. In the United States Department of Defense culture, it is referred to by the abbreviation COMSEC. The field includes cryptographic security, transmission security, emissions security and physical security of COMSEC equipment, COMSEC is used to protect both classified and unclassified traffic on military communications networks, including voice, video, and data. It is used for analog and digital applications, and both wired and wireless links. Voice over secure internet protocol VOSIP has become the de facto standard for securing voice communication, USCENTCOM moved entirely to VOSIP in 2008. Cryptographic security, The component of security that results from the provision of technically sound cryptosystems. This includes ensuring message confidentiality and authenticity. g, crypto-ancillary equipment, Equipment designed specifically to facilitate efficient or reliable operation of crypto-equipment, without performing cryptographic functions itself. The Armys platform in the four-tiered EKMS, AKMS, automates frequency management and it eliminates paper keying material, hardcopy SOI, and associated time and resource-intensive courier distribution. It has 4 components, LCMS provides automation for the detailed accounting required for every COMSEC account, ACES is the frequency management portion of AKMS. ACES has been designated by the Military Communications Electronics Board as the joint standard for use by all services in development of frequency management and cryptonet planning. CT3 with DTD software is in a fielded, ruggedized hand-held device that handles, views, stores, and loads SOI, Key, DTD provides an improved net-control device to automate crypto-net control operations for communications networks employing electronically keyed COMSEC equipment. SKL is a hand-held PDA that handles, views, stores, and loads SOI, Key, KMI is intended to replace the legacy Electronic Key Management System to provide a means for securely ordering, generating, producing, distributing, managing, and auditing cryptographic products. This system is currently being fielded by Major Commands and variants will be required for non-DoD Agencies with a COMSEC Mission, national Information Systems Security Glossary This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Department of Defense document Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. INFORMATION SECURITY GUIDELINES FOR THE DEPLOYMENT OF DEPLOYABLE SWITCHED SYSTEMS, archived from the original on September 16,2012. ARMY SIGNAL CENTER AND FORT GORDON, archived from the original on March 30,2009. Archived from the original on September 30,2010
36.
Lithuanian Military Police
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The Lithuanian Military Police is a law enforcement agency operating within the national defence system of the Republic of Lithuania and is a part of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. Military Police are directly subordinate to the Chief of Defence of the Republic of Lithuania, on 22 October 1998 in the Parliament of Lithuania the Military Police Law of the Lithuanian Armed Forces was adopted which served as a basis for the establishment of military police. In 1999 Major Dainius Janėnas was appointed as Commander of Military Police, in 2000 Vilnius and Kaunas Garrisons were established, in 2001 - Klaipėda Garrison, in 2005 - Šiauliai Garrison were established. In 2004 Lt Col Sigitas Butkus was appointed as Commander of Military Police, on 22 October 2004, Military Police colours were adopted. Military policemen participate in operations and exercises. Any person serving in the National Defence System or having served in the military service. Control group, Courrier section, Support units, all relevant terms must be followed
37.
Chief of defence
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The Chief of Defence is the highest ranked commissioned officer of a nations armed forces. Thus, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the CHOD of the United States, the Chief of the Defence Staff is the CHOD of United Kingdom, and the Chief of Defence is the CHOD of Norway. Both NATO and EU occasionally hold CHODs meetings of the NATO Military Committee, within member states of NATO, the following national positions are the CHOD positions. Sometimes more than one form of translation into English is encountered, within the EU member states that are not members of NATO, the following national positions are the CHOD positions. Note that in countries outside of NATO and EU, the concept of civilian control of the military is inapplicable. In some countries the minister of defence is often a military officer. However, the list below only lists CHOD equivalents and not defense ministers
38.
Special forces
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Special forces and special operations forces are military or police units trained to conduct special operations. The term special forces in the United States refers to the U. S. Armys forces, in Russian-speaking countries special forces are typically called spetsnaz, an acronym for special purpose. Likewise, Russian speakers refer to special forces of nations as spetsnaz, for example. Special Forces would be referred to as amerikanski spetsnaz in Russian, other significant roles lay in reconnaissance, providing essential intelligence from near or among the enemy and increasingly in combating irregular forces, their infrastructure and activities. Hamilcar Barca in Sicily had specialized troops trained to launch several offensives per day, in the late Roman or early Byzantine period, Roman fleets used small, fast, camouflaged ships crewed by selected men for scouting and commando missions. In Japan, ninjas were used for reconnaissance, espionage and as assassins, bodyguards or fortress guards, during the Napoleonic wars, rifle and sapper units were formed that held specialised roles in reconnaissance and skirmishing and were not committed to the formal battle lines. The British Indian Army deployed two special forces during their wars, the Corps of Guides formed in 1846 and the Gurkha Scouts. During the Second Boer War the British Army felt the need for specialised units became most apparent. This unit was formed in 1900 by Lord Lovat and early on reported to an American, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, after the war, Lovats Scouts went on to formally become the British Armys first sniper unit. Additionally, the Bushveldt Carbineers, formed in 1901, can be seen as an unconventional warfare unit. Modern special forces emerged during the Second World War, in 1940, the British Commandos were formed following Winston Churchills call for specially trained troops of the hunter class, who can develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast. A staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke, had already submitted such a proposal to General Sir John Dill, Dill, aware of Churchills intentions, approved Clarkes proposal and on 23 June 1940, the first Commando raid took place. The Special Service Brigade was quickly expanded to 12 units which became known as Commandos, each Commando had a lieutenant colonel as the commanding officer and numbered around 450 men. In December 1940 a Middle East Commando depot was formed with the responsibility of training and supplying reinforcements for the Commando units in that theatre, in February 1942 the Commando training depot at Achnacarry in the Scottish Highlands was established by Brigadier Charles Haydon. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Vaughan, the Commando depot was responsible for training complete units, the training regime was for the time innovative and physically demanding, and far in advance of normal British Army training. The depot staff were all hand picked, with the ability to any of the volunteers. Training and assessment started immediately on arrival, with the volunteers having to complete an 8-mile march with all their equipment from the Spean Bridge railway station to the commando depot, exercises were conducted using live ammunition and explosives to make training as realistic as possible. Physical fitness was a prerequisite, with cross country runs and boxing matches to improve fitness, speed and endurance marches were conducted up and down the nearby mountain ranges and over assault courses that included a zip-line over Loch Arkaig, all while carrying arms and full equipment
39.
Mechanised Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf
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Mechanized Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf is the core unit of the Lithuanian Army and forms the countrys contribution to NATO collective defence. The name of the brigade relates to the Lithuanian mythical character from the foundation legend of the Vilnius city. The unit originated in June 1990, when a separate Defence Squad was created, same year, in autumn, the Honors Guards Company was created. Gen. Valdas Tutkus and Chief of Defense of Denmark Gen. Hans Jasper Helso have signed the Memorandum of MIB Iron Wolf affiliation with Danish Division, Mindaugas Steponavičius The soldiers of the brigade participate in exercises of various levels as in Lithuania as in abroad as well. In addition, they are conducting peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and stand by period in NATO Response Force, the Brigade constantly takes part in joint projects, international operations, and wargames together with other countries military units. Among those are the British Armed Forces, the Army of Denmark, the Army of the Czech Republic, the project is executed in cooperation with several Scandinavian nations, Great Britain, and the United States. LITPOLBAT, a project to create a joint battalion with Polands military, LITBAT, a project aimed to reorganized the Grand Duke Algirdas Battalion into a mechanized infantry battalion, capable of operating together with NATO forces. Executed with the help of Denmarks military instructors, grunwald Wind, a biannual military practice in Poland. The Brigades HQ and the Duchess Birtutė Battalion take part in those, the biannual Amber Hope military practice, together with other BALTBAT members. The NATO military practice Strong Resolve 2001 and Strong Resolve 2002 in Poland, the Cooperative Lantern 2002 military practice in the Netherlands, attended by soldiers from the Brigade HQ and the King Mindaugas Battalion. UNPROFOR, IFOR, SFOR, KFOR.0 Unported License, all relevant terms must be followed. Http, //kariuomene. kam. lt/en/structure_1469/land_force/structure_1299/motorised_infantry_brigade_iron_wolf. html www. Ginklai. net - article used with permission
40.
Mechanized infantry
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Mechanized infantry is infantry equipped with armored personnel carriers or infantry fighting vehicles for transport and combat. Mechanized infantry is distinguished from motorized infantry in that its vehicles provide a degree of protection from hostile fire, most APCs and IFVs are fully tracked or are all-wheel drive vehicles, for mobility across rough ground. Some nations distinguish between mechanized and armored infantry, designating troops carried by APCs as mechanized and those in IFVs as armored. The support weapons for mechanized infantry are also provided with motorized transport, compared with light truck-mobile infantry, mechanized infantry can maintain rapid tactical movement and, if mounted in IFVs, has more integral firepower. It requires more combat supplies and ordnance supplies, and a larger proportion of manpower is required to crew. For example, most APCs mount a section of seven or eight infantrymen but have a crew of two, most IFVs carry only six or seven infantry but require a crew of three. To be effective in the field, mechanized units also require many mechanics, with specialized maintenance and recovery vehicles, arguably, the first mechanized infantry were assault teams mounted on A7V tanks. The vehicles were extra-large to let them carry sizeable assault teams, all-machine gun armed A7V tanks carried two small flame throwers for their dismounts to use. A7V tank would often carry a second officer to lead the assault team, during the Battle of St. Quentin, A7Vs were accompanied by 20 stormtroopers from Rohr Assault Battalion, but it is unspecified if they were acting as dismounts or were accompanying the tanks on foot. During the battle, tank crews were reported to dismount and attack enemy positions with grenades, towards the end of World War I, all the armies involved were faced with the problem of maintaining the momentum of an attack. Tanks, artillery, or infiltration tactics could all be used to break through an enemy defense and it was widely acknowledged that cavalry was too vulnerable to be used on most European battlefields, but many armies continued to deploy them. Motorized infantry could maintain rapid movement, but their trucks required either a road network or firm open terrain. They were unable to traverse a battlefield obstructed by craters, barbed wire, tracked or all-wheel drive vehicles were to be the solution. Following the war, development of mechanized forces was largely theoretical for some time, although some proponents of mobile warfare, such as J. F. C. Fuller, advocated building tank fleets, other, such as Heinz Guderian in Germany, as the Germans rearmed in the 1930s, they equipped some infantry units in their new Panzer divisions with the half-track Sd. Kfz. 251, which could keep up with tanks on most terrain, the French Army also created Light Mechanized divisions in which some of the infantry units possessed small tracked carriers. Together with the motorization of the infantry and support units. The German doctrine was to use them to exploit breakthroughs in Blitzkrieg offensives, as World War II progressed, most major armies integrated tanks or assault guns with mechanized infantry, as well as other supporting arms, such as artillery and engineers, as combined arms units
41.
General Romualdas Giedraitis Artillery Battalion
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The General Romualdas Giedraitis Artillery Battalion, equipped with 105mm howitzers, was founded in December 2000, under a joint Lithuanian-Danish project – LITART. The Danish Army provided material and methodical assistance in the founding of the artillery unit, the Artillery Battalion received the required technical equipment and armaments. The second stage —training of control group officers, armament officers, logistic specialists at the Danish military artillery,63 military personnel serving with the Artillery Battalion underwent training in Denmark. Establishment of fire posts at Central Training Area of the Lithuanian Armed Forces in Pabradė, the third stage —junior grade commander and specialist training course delivered at the Artillery Battalion in Lithuania. Over 90 junior grade officers received training, in 2003 the artillery battalion was attached to the Iron Wolf Mechanised Infantry Brigade. The fourth stage —training of servicemen of the mandatory military service at the Artillery Battalion in Lithuania. During the stage, all serving with the Artillery Battalion will receive training. In 2004 the artillery battalion was granted with a name in honor of General Romualdas Giedraitis, main role of the battalions is to support infantry. Other units may have mortars, but the artillery battalion uses only heavier weapons, Artillery may provide support in all types of a battle at any time of a day under any weather conditions. Artillery fire may be moved from one shooting area to another and to define the course of the battle.0 Unported License, all relevant terms must be followed
42.
Heckler & Koch G36
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The G36 is a 5. 56×45mm assault rifle, designed in the early 1990s by Heckler & Koch in Germany as a replacement for the heavier 7. 62mm G3 battle rifle. It was accepted into service with the Bundeswehr in 1997, replacing the G3, the G36 is gas-operated and feeds from a 30-round detachable box magazine or 100-round C-Mag drum magazine. Work on a successor for the venerable G3 rifle had been ongoing in Germany since the second half of the 1970s and these efforts resulted in the innovative 4. 73mm G11 assault rifle, that used caseless ammunition. It had been predicted that this weapon would eventually replace the G3, Heckler & Koch, having no incentive to pursue a new 5.56 mm weapon system, was content with the export-oriented HK33 and G41 rifles. Increasing interest in Germany for a service rifle chambered for the NATO-standard 5.56 mm cartridge led H&K to offer the German armed forces the G41 rifle. Design work was initiated from the ground up on a modern 5.56 mm assault rifle designated Project 50 or HK50. The prototype was trialed, where it was rated higher than the rival Austrian Steyr AUG system. The final version of the G36 was completed in 1995, production of the G36 began in 1996. The HK50 rifle was selected for service and an order was placed for 33,000 rifles under the Bundeswehr designation Gewehr G36. The order also involved an option for a further 17,000 rifles, deliveries were first made to the Bundeswehrs NATO Quick Reaction Force during the fourth quarter of 1997. The G36s production line began in early 1996, in July 1998, it was announced that the G36 had been selected as the standard rifle for the Spanish Armed Forces, replacing the 5.56 mm CETME Model L and LC rifles. Deliveries first took place at the end of 1999 and these rifles are manufactured in Spain under license by General Dynamics Santa Bárbara Sistemas at the FACOR facility, in Coruña, Galicia. In addition, the rifle has been licensed for production in Saudi Arabia. The manufacturer in the country is the Military Industries Corporation, technology transfer was granted by Germany to Saudi Arabia on 30 June 2008 The first Saudi-made G36 was made at MICs factory on 30 June 2009. However, some components of their own G36s are supplied by Heckler & Koch, the G36 is a selective-fire 5.56 mm assault rifle, firing from a closed rotary bolt. The G36 has a layout and a modular component design. Common to all variants of the G36 family are, the receiver and buttstock assembly, bolt carrier group with bolt, the receiver contains the barrel, carry handle with integrated sights, trigger group with pistol grip, handguard and magazine socket. The G36 employs a free-floating barrel, the barrel is fastened to the receiver with a special nut, which can be removed with a wrench
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