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THE SECURITY IMPLICATIONS OF CRYPTOCURRENCIES

Author(s): CONSTANTINESCU Maria / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Cryptocurrencies were initially regarded as a technological curiosity and a way to put into practice the principles of the libertarian ideology. A decade later from the emergence of the first cryptocurrency, they have slowly made their way in many aspects of the real world and have been widely embraced, for legitimate or illicit purposes. Consequently, cryptocurrencies now have a variety of security implications, at national and even global scale. These implications derive first of all from their use for illegal activities (from terrorism to money laundering and financing the activities of organized crime networks), but also from their legal use, through their influence on the financial sector, on a country’s monetary policy or through private initiatives such as the Libra project initiated by Facebook. The purpose of this paper is to analyse these security implications and the measures that states can take to mitigate their negative impact.

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CYBER ACTIVITIES IN THE GREY ZONE: AN OVERVIEW OF THE RUSSIAN AND CHINESE APPROACHES

Author(s): COLOM-PIELLA Guillem / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Concepts such as “hybrid threat” or “grey zone” are used to define the wide range of “political warfare” actions that countries such as Russia, China, Iran or North Korea employ for projecting their influence, plausibly denying their responsibility and hampering any response by not crossing the threshold of an armed conflict. Those characteristics allow many actors to project their power asymmetrically by hindering the attribution of their actions, preventing the allocation of legal responsibilities, making retaliation more difficult and compromising the credibility of deterrence. Although many of these actions are carried out in the physical world, the virtual domain seems the natural realm for these activities. This is due to the ambiguity, anonymity, asymmetry, economy and ubiquity of cyberspace. This contribution focuses on the “grey zone” activities in the cyber and information domains conducted by two relevant powers – China and Russia – and discuss the problems and prospects related to those.

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SCIENTIFIC SECURITY AND THE BACKBONE OF THE FUTURE ROMANIAN ARMED FORCES

Author(s): Iulian Chifu / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Scientific security enters the forefront of the debates related to the evolution of security and military in the future. In that respect, the backbone of the Romanian Armed Forces should move more to fields of scientific research and technological achievements with direct applications and, maybe, a proper scientific and strategic tool at the disposal of the Chief of defense. The most important fields of research should come from strategic studies, prospective studies, new technologies and their impact, applied military and security sociology, as well asInformational Warfare and impact studies.

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THE MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF THE EPIDEMIC DISEASES INDUCED BY BIOLOGICAL ATTACK WITH CONTAGIOUS AGENTS

Author(s): Viorel ORDEANU,Lucia Ionescu / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The current security context illustrated by the COVID-19 pandemic shows us that we have vulnerabilities, that there are threats and that there will be risks, including biological ones. In the field of BIO defense, it is almost impossible to experiment at the general level. This can only be done on time in the laboratory, in vitro, in vivo and possibly in silico. The calculation methodology for the effects of possible attack with contagious biological warfare agents has certain assumptions and limitations. Considering that the population is homogeneous it results that the isolated groups, to which the infection it does not spread, will show an overestimation. Possible individual variations, particular diseases and asymptomatic cases are not taken into account so either an underestimation or an overestimation occurs. In the mathematical modeling of the epidemic diseases induced by biological attack with contagious agents can use the SEIRP model: Susceptible, Exposed and Infected, Infectious, Removed and Prophylaxis Efficacious Model. The study is important for medical operational planning.

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ESTIMATION OF PROBABLE HEALTH LOSSES IN BIOLOGICAL ATTACK WITH NON-CONTAGIOUS AGENTS BY, MATHEMATICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY

Author(s): Viorel ORDEANU,Lucia Ionescu / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

In the case of attack with CBRN Weapons of Mass Destruction, the use of biological warfare agents is likely to amplify the effect on the living force, in order to infect, lethal or nonlethal, as many enemy as possible. The military medical service must be able to prevent, diagnose, treat and recover all affected military and the civilian population in the area. Healthlosses must be recovered in their entirety. Mathematical modeling of the epidemic induced by biological attack is useful for planning the forces and means of the military medical service, for medical planning the offensive or defensive operation, logistics and human resources needed for medical support and replacement. The estimates resulting from the calculations according to the formulas recommended in the specific NATO documents allow the optimization of the medical and non-medical countermeasures for the liquidation of theconsequences of the biological attack.

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COMBATING PANDEMICS AND SOCIAL INTERACTION ERRORS – MOVIES VERSUS REALITY

Author(s): DRĂGOIANU Ioana-Flavia / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

One of the major security threats Humankind was confronted with, along several millennia, was coping with deadly viruses. In such a situation, different means of protection of the population have been ensured – medical discoveries, vaccines, and social interaction obstructions. As the creativity of man knows no bounds, different scenarios have emerged regarding combating disease whilst many scientists have designed layouts of coping with deadly viruses, using different models of infections. The goal of this paper is to analyze some of these models, through the lens of Security Studies and Political Science. Then, the discussion will shift towards social interactions and manipulating the social network. Furthermore, we will apply this model on a few selected movies, critically comparing them to the reality we are facing today. Thereby, the focus shall shift towards four well known movies: Contagion (2011), Outbreak (1995), Quarantine (2008), It comes at Night (2017) and their approach to containing and curing viruses, while also quenching the impeding chaos of dismay.

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TERROR ATTACKS AGAINST AFRICAN HEALTH FACILITIES

Author(s): János Besenyő / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The article is about the attacks on health facilities including hospitals, medical staff and security inside the healthcare institutions. The author first goes on to present a short introduction about the general knowledge concerning the situation of the terrorist assaults on the hospitals and the medical staff. He divides the text into several chapters, which try to comprehend the most important sides of the attacks on healthcare institutions. First, he starts with armed assaults on hospitals and health workers, where he describes the dangers the terrorists pose against the institutions and the personnel in them. Then he goes on to talk about the attacks by radicalized medical staff against their own personnel and patients, which presents a serious problem for the security officers. He continues with attacks by explosions, hostage-taking and cyber attacks on medical facilities. At the end, the author concludes the article by giving some advises for the international community how to resolve these problems.

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FUNCTIONS AND PRINCIPLES OF ENSURING THE SECURITY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS IN THE CONTEXT OF CYBER THREATS

Author(s): Lucian Scirtocea / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Considering the NATO and EU membership and in the context of new cyber threats, ensuring the security of information and communication systems has become a priority for both public institutions, private companies and the Romanian Army. In this article, the aim is to present the main functions and principles of ensuring the security of information and communication systems in the context of the evolution of the IT @ C field.

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SPACE SYSTEMS – A NEW CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR?

Author(s): Cristian Băhnăreanu / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

In recent years, space capabilities have become increasingly important for the proper function and development of the economy and society and for ensuring security. Space is the newest operating environment for military powers, so decision makers can no longer ignore the benefits of space systems and technologies, but also the risks and threats they may be subjected to. The paper highlights the growing contribution of all these space systems to the functioning of most critical infrastructure sectors and assesses that they must be an independent sector of such infrastructures that need to be protected.

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CYBERGEOPOLITICS AND CYBERGEOSTRATEGY – EMERGING STUDY FIELDS

Author(s): Marius-Cristian Neacşu,CHICIUC Ioana-Andreea / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

For some time now, mankind has entered a new phase of evolution, with physical space (land, sea, air, cosmic) being doubled by the virtual one, cyberspace – the global network of interconnected information technologies – and geopolitics and geostrategy could not fail to take into account this new phase in the evolution of history, with the emergence of subfields such as cybergeopolitics and cybergeostrategy, with some authors already anticipating cybernetocracies or cyber powers. It should only be added that cyberspace can be both an environment for the 'new' power (the geopolitical logic being the same) and a weapon – the cyberweapon (the use of cyberattacks as a geostrategic tool). The aim of this study consists in identifying the main components (definition, subject matter, terminology) of the two emerging areas, namely cybergeopolitics and cybergeostrategy. The results of this qualitative research are based on the critical analysis of the specialized literature, in order to summarize the specific phenomenology and to theorize the concept of cybergeopolitics and its derivates.

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THE CONCEPT OF MULTI-DOMAIN OPERATIONS AND ITS MULTINATIONAL UNDERSTANDING

Author(s): Crăişor Constantin IONIȚĂ / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The international competition on emerging technologies rises a new and very dangerous threat for global and regional security because of the easy access to the procurement of very high-tech and sensitive defence material. The race for who will control some domains from the future operating environment is between the United States, Russia and China, but several other state and non-state actors have reconsidered their high-tech strategies, already. It is about India, Iran, Japan, Israel and the European Union as a whole, as well as transnational terrorist and organised crime organisations or multinational companies. At the same time, the last technological developments have created a huge discrepancy in the Resolution in Military Affairs (RMA), especially because of letting far behind doctrines and the organisation of military structures for combat. This anacronism is evolving with the intent of gradually replacing regular fighters and current formations in the modern battlefield with robots/androids and joint human-machines teams. As a result, it has become imperative to develop new concepts/strategies for future conflicts that brings together all elements of advanced technologies and coordinates their joint actions on any potential adversary, in order to achieve a total and quick victory. This material will analyse the US Army’s concept of Multidimensional Operatios and how it is understood at the Allied level.

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NEW CHALLENGES FOR A FUTURE STATE DEFENCE

Author(s): Fabian Baxa,Aleš Tesař / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

There is an increasing number of non-state actors acting recently as well as present armed conflicts aside of state actors when non-state actors being endowed with more economic and “military” power than smaller states what enable them a broad spectrum of activities in all domains explored by human civilisation. Nowadays even an inner space belongs already to activities of non-state actors. Cyber space is an arena of these actors since the beginning of its exploitation. Putting together, it is necessary to expect a growing number of frictions among various state and non-state actors having their own interests in the same areas and time. These frictions may lead to conflicts, even armed conflicts being presented by other activities than engagement of traditional armed forces against property or interests of both, state or non-state actors with an aim to gain some advantage. Actions in an inner space or in a cyber space could be more serious than small scale armed conflict. These actions might be considered as simple criminal or terroristic acts or as casus belli, like consequences of the 11th September 2001 situation. Who is in charge of judging a nature of the offensive actions between two non-state actors? What state is authorised to declare “war against terrorism” (or criminality?) towards one or all belling parties, which are non-state actors? This situation can arise more questions and this article has an ambition to elaborate some of them to address new challenges in the field of future state defence.

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NUCLEAR GEOSTRATEGY OF THE POST-COLD WAR ERA

Author(s): Marius-Cristian Neacșu,Silviu Neguţ / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The use of nuclear energy has changed the world's geopolitical and geostrategic landscape irreversibly, distinguishing another attribute of "high power", namely that of nuclear power, which not only means the possession of a nuclear arsenal but also trade in civil nuclear technology (nuclear reactors for electricity generation) placing the selling state and the buyer in a geopolitical relationship. What's new? The emergence of a new nuclear military power, China, perceived as a "growing tiger", and new exporters of civil nuclear technology, Russia and China, which now concentrate 2/3 of reactor construction in the world after the long period of the Cold War when the global civilian nuclear energy market was dominated by the US.

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GRAND STRATEGY AND MILITARY IMPLICATIONS OF NEW RUSSIA’S MILITARY DOCTRINE IN 21ST CENTURY: GEOSTRATEGIC ASPECTS OF HYBRID WARFARE STRATEGY AGAINST GEORGIA AND UKRAINE

Author(s): Vakhtang MAISAIA / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

A paper reflects new dimensions of New Cold War geostrategic balance implications at pan-regional(European) and regional (Black Sea) levels that already has been transformed into classical hybrid warfare between the Russian Federation and NATO due to the Russia’s invasion into Ukraine. Currently adopted military doctrine of the Russian Federation envisages engagement into two military conflicts simultaneously and constructed its strategic operational framework founded on incorporation of three combat elements: military, non-military and information warfare measures and proper concepts. Hence, it means that Russia can beginwar-game scenarios at the same time against two neighboring nations as it occurs at time being against Ukraine and Georgia. At that respect, the incumbent Russian military leadership in aegis of so-called “GerasimovDoctrine” is promoting hybrid warfare as a key dominant grand strategy with relevant theater strategy and operational art elements (for instance, operational – strategic command HQ “South” and 5 Army Corp HQs). The military “muscle” could easily skew and twist European security environment that is much unprepared to the geostrategic challenge – Crimea occupation and annexation in 2014, war with Georgia in 2008, hybrid attack to Estonia in 2007 and very recently large-scale military intervention in Azov Sea and pending regional hegemony conditions in Caspian Basin. These military asymmetric challenges and risks deriving from the arms race derailed by the Russia’s incumbent authority, and security dilemma embroiled with by the elements of WMD are sufficient indications why the European security is plausible fragile against such challenges. From academic standpoint, the thesis deals in analyzing with the most dangerous threat targeting the European security architecture – asymmetric military challenge and realization of which is pursued in wagging hybrid war against Georgia and Ukraine. The new type of warfare is a probe stone perfected against these two post-Sovietnations indicates and poses real menace, mainly geostrategic origin, easily targeted NATO member-states, including Poland. The article predisposes reflection and understanding true meaning of so-called “GerasimovDoctrine” and the whole new version of Military Doctrine of Russia and how it is implemented at the stage. A shift transformation takes place in realms of contemporary century warfare doctrinal planning and the transformation has already implicated of identifying new type of warfare strategy – asymmetric war with representation of hybrid warfare that contributing in re-shaping a grand strategy that allows policymakers to steer through the uncertainties of a complex international security environment; Elaboration real content and new definition of “hybrid war” and its dual fold implications how to quell and deal with asymmetric military challenges and risks and how to cause the challenges on its matter. Moreover, it describes and review reformatting modality in planning and wagging war due to the military technology development that contributed to a far more complicated strategic environment for war than that of previous century. In that respect is to be identified new style of warfare – Urbanistic warfare presented in 2008 August Russia-Georgia war as well as in war in Ukraine (Mariupol battle) new definition of the warfare in general matter.

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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY AND ITS LIMITS IN FORECASTING CHINESE BEHAVIOR TOWARDS THE US. THE CASE OF BALANCE OF POWER THEORY AND POWER TRANSITION THEORY

Author(s): Maria Mădălina Bulancia / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The literature on international relations pays special attention to China's rise since the "opening of China" in 1978, trying to identify and make predictions about China's behavioral patterns in its relationship with the United States and the current international system. Not surprisingly, international relations theories have been considered – from Morgenthau to present –, useful tools for predicting the evolution of major events in the international relations system. Using different theoretical lenses we can infer different outcomes regarding the complicated US-China relationship especially now, when the Chinese economic and social transformation seems to be accompanied by a revival of its own traditional concepts aimed at formulating a „Chinese school”, of international relations, characterized by the rejection of the realist assumptions that point almost every time to an imminent confrontation and placing both countries on even more profoundly contrasting positions. Therefore, starting from the balance of power theory and the power transition theory, this article aims to identify the extent to which the two theories prove explanatory and predictive value and can be useful tools for inferring China's behavior in the context of the current aggressive discourse that characterizes the relationship between the two countries. Also, this paper is aiming to analyze the limits we can identify in the existing literature on both theories.

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PANDEMIC INFLUENZA, A THREAT TO INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Author(s): Mihaiela BUȘE / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the international community, causing a terrible shock among people everywhere. An invisible enemy that has spread all over the globe and left behind death and suffering, lockdown, unemployment, weakened national economies, a whole new depressing and frightening reality. Were there any other pandemics? Could this pandemic have been better managed? Has this threat been identified in national security strategies? Did the states act separately or unitarily? After almost two years, were there lessons learned? I reviewed the US national security strategies from 1987 to 2021 in order to see if the pandemics were mentioned as threats to the security of the American people. Then I did the same with Romania's last two security strategies. I looked for documents that showed the interest of states for the consequences of a pandemic similar with the one in 1918, which would show that pandemics were perceived as security threats before theCovid-19 pandemic broke out. I also looked for concrete actions of the states for the management of a pandemic, pandemic preparedness plans. I also highlighted the challenges states were facing following the outbreak of theCovid-19 pandemic in the medical field and in the economy. Although the management of the pandemic was initially a race against the clock, each country trying to cope with the large number of people hospitalized and lacking medical equipment, it later became clear that cooperation between states and organizations and mutual aid is the solution to get out faster from this health crisis.

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PUTIN’S POLICY IN UKRAINE: A DESTRUCTIVE, UGLY, ATTRITION BASED WAR, FOUGHT AIMLESSLY, FOR THE SAKE OF WAR

Author(s): Iulian Chifu / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

It is a challenge to try to draw conclusions and find the characteristics of an ongoing crisis. Even more so when it is a large-scale war, like the one fought by Russia in Ukraine, a war already defined as a war of aggression of Russia in Ukraine, unprovoked, illegal and unjustified, an invasion of Russia in Ukraine aimed at conquering new territories for Moscow to annex. But, after three months of war, some basic arguments are already in place and it is worth assessing the regularities of this war and its particularities in a way that allows us to predict the evolution of this war. And if no two wars are alike, comparisons give us hints about previous behaviors and perspectives of evolution. In this case, the 7 districts buffer zone in Nagorno Karabakh could give us a hint on the way the destruction of Eastern Ukraine will be used in the future by Russia to deny any the presence of weapons close to its borders.

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HUMAN SECURITY AS A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK INDISPENSABLE FOR ANALYSING THE RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Author(s): Alexandru LUCINESCU / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

COVID-19 pandemic affected millions of people worldwide and challenged the ability of national and international institutions to help suffering people and prevent others from being infected. From a theoretical point of view, this pandemic was framed as a human security crisis by officials of the United Nations, politicians, and researchers because it had a severe impact on human lives as a result of posing a threat to their health. The centrality of human beings for the concept of human security allowed the COVID-19 pandemic to be connected to human security and thus to be subjected to the process of securitization. A further aspect that significantly contributed to establishing this correlation was the fact that pandemic had been included in the concept of human security since it gained prominence back in 1994, becoming one of its characteristic constituents. Understanding how COVID-19 pandemic had been associated with human security and what made possible for them to be related contributes to explaining the present relevancy of human security, helps clarifying the theoretical basis of its application to this pandemic, facilitates the framing of potential future pandemics as a threat to human security and improves the use of this theoretical outlook in relation with pandemics.

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TURKISH INTERVENTION IN SYRIA AND GEOSTRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS ON THE EUROPEAN UNION

Author(s): Andrei-Cristian Moraru / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Operation "Peace Spring" is an event of major importance in understanding the relationship between Turkey and Syria, the future relations between the two states and the European and international community. Turkey's design of a security zone has created stability for the state in question and destabilized the entire region at the societal level. Thus, the instability generated is a vulnerability for European and international security and can be exploited by countries that oppose the democratization process or countries that have political and financial interests in that area. In today's society, disinformation is a real risk, being a measure implemented by many state and non-state actors in order to achieve security objectives. The phenomenon is also present in the current case study, playing an important role in the evolution of regional instability. The implications for the European Union security stem from soft-power influences in the collective minds of imperialist states that threaten the continent, the continued disinformation of policymakers, and the influence of decision-making in democratic states. The Operation set a precedent for the current military conflicts in the vicinity of Romania, being visible the intention of the Russian Federation to create a "safety zone", following the recent expansion of democratic and societal values.

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US-ROMANIAN RELATIONS – STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

Author(s): Gabriel GABOR / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

In this paper, we aim to analyze the evolution of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the United States of America. Launched on 11 July 1997, the partnership was a political and diplomatic platform for cooperation between the two countries. The novelty of this article is the SWOT analysis of the Strategic Partnership but also it's deepening. We propose that the Strategic Partnership be institutionalized and instrumentalized in the form of a new format for cooperation and collaboration. One of the three pillars of our country's foreign policy is the privileged relationship with the United States of America, which must be deepened and developed. The Strategic Partnership concluded between Romania and the United States of America is the only certitude for our country to survive as a state, and to preserve its entire territory. This year we celebrate 25 years since this partnership emerged on the stage of History. Now, as we experience uncertain times marked by fierce geopolitical competition, it is high time we developed and formalized our Strategic Partnership. Not that we want to minimize NATO’s role, but the Alliance without the United States does not have the strength to oppose multiple challenges at international level. The Strategic Partnership strengthens our country’s profile while being the certitude of our country’s preserving its territorial integrity, and full sovereignty. The bilateral relationship has become a model of diplomatic cooperation and has manifested itself in various domains, political, military, economic, informational, environmental, social, and cultural.

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