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The Crimean crisis erupted after President Viktor Yanukovych’s departure from powerfollowing the 2013-2014 anti-government protests. Its trigger was the time to repeal thelaw on the status of regional languages, by which several languages used in Ukraine wereremoved from official use. The involved actors were, on the one hand, the Russian-speakinggroups that opposed the new political changes in Kyiv and wanted the annexation of Crimeaby Russia and, on the other, the Ukrainian groups and the Crimean Tatars, who supported theEuromaidan movement.The analysis, first of all, requires understanding the key concepts and threats other thanthe conventional ones that have arisen in Ukraine for the practical implementation of Russia’sstrategy and policy of protecting the divided Russian-speaking compatriots, restoring theRussian civilization and reconstructing the Russian world (Russkiy mir).Considering the importance given by global, European and national security institutions tothis geopolitical conflict with perverse geometry, we intend to present this study from theperspective of the following conceptual elements: the historical context; political and strategicassumptions; the physiognomy of the military actions carried out in a hybrid context; theanalysis of the characteristics of the hybrid type conflict in the understanding of the RussianFederation.
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Current theorizations in military-related studies outline the need for a fresh postmodern approach, extending the “modern”, the positivist foundation of military thought and aiming at increasing the potential of institutional adaptation, with both knowledge management and action related goals. Institutional adaptation gets a multi-level approach, extending from the frames used to conceptualize the space of military action to the framework defined to set methodologies and procedures, down to the military action and its material related assets. In such a context, the “network” and the “social network” turned into pervasive concepts during the last two decades, defining a route to understanding the new increased complexity in the action space: for understanding the human terrain in military settings, the intelligence realm and its challenges, the law enforcement and the legal framework it is built on. A brief conceptual archaeology of the “network” term is employed to outline some peculiar transformations during the evolution of Romanian security institutions during the last decades, as parts and as an integrated ensemble, in terms of missions, values and operational approaches.
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After more than three decades of bipolar epoch, followed by the fall of the Berlin Wall,the United States of America became the unique superpower in international relations.Currently, there is a multipolar era, in which the world power has distributed to many actorsin the international arena. The United States of America and the Russian Federation are twoof the greatest powers of the new multipolar epoch, whose state-of-the-art geostrategicrelationships will influence the way the world order in the 21st century will be configured.Russia’s opposition to Washington’s actions in the post-Cold War era is one of the causes thatgradually resulted in the transition to a multipolar era in the international system. The presentpaper briefly presents, by the political realism perspective, the dynamic of the USA and theRussian Federation power relations, in the context of the current multipolar world order.
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The crisis that started in 2015 revealed a deficient European migration system. The leadingbodies of the European Union did not foresee such an event, being put in a position to reactto the reality of the events in progress. Creating a system of compulsory quotas for asylumseekers, increasing security at internal and external borders, as well as managing the controlof immigrants with illegal status are just some of the responses to this phenomenon.
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Nowadays cyber security is essential for individuals, companies, governments and nationsas whole. As our society and our economy become more and more digital, the technologiesused are replaced, updated and constantly modified. In response, cybercriminals are payingmore attention to how they are using technology to commit malicious activities on digitalnetworks. In this context, cyberspace, which is constantly changing, generates not onlydevelopment opportunities but also risks and challenges. All these vulnerabilities make cybersecurity a major priority for all the entities.World governments have invested significant amounts of money to defend their own databecause any initial investment is lower than the funds required to recover from a cyber-attackand, on the other hand, a cyber security incident in one country may well have an impactacross national borders. Therefore, what steps should we follow?
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Romania, by the nature of its political orientation, its Euro-Atlantic community membership,the specific agreements, treaties and undertaken partnerships, as well as its geographicalposition, lies at the Eastern border of both EU and NATO. As a result, one of the assignedmissions of its air and naval forces is the monitoring of the situation developments in the BlackSea region, in order to ensure the early warning and useful information needed at strategicand operational decision-making levels.The occupation of the Crimean Peninsula, its saturation with troops and military equipmentby the Russian Federation and the public declarations of Russian officials, referring to someNATO countries, have generated a lot of tension and uncertainty in the region. All thementioned aspects have led to the Black Sea area gradual transformation, from a quiet areaof free trade and the germ of economic development at regional level, to a “stormy” areabetween the Russian Federation and the West.The connection between action and reaction causes a cyclical effect, as in any system. Inthat manner, the consolidation of Anti-Access Area Denial (A2AD) capabilities by a state willgenerate, even though only as a precaution, a sustained effort from another state or coalitionof states to find out a solution to counter them.
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The Black Sea is a security complex that has come to the fore today as a result of thegeopolitical changes in recent years. The changes have the effect of modifying the borders.Moreover, new “frozen conflicts” have emerged. The area has gained consistency in theincreased attention paid by Turkey and the Russian Federation but also by the US and NATObeing positioned on the border of Europe with Asia and with the new great Middle East. It isthe source of risks with still imprecise effects defined, having a very high destabilizing potentialwith implications that can even be global.In the past years and in the context of the changes in the policy of all the actors in the area,in the paradigm of NATO Defence, a new type of conflict, the hybrid conflict has emerged,and/or specific measures to counteract its effects have been generated. Also, a new arms racebegan with the involvement of all actors with influence and interests in the region includingRomania. We can say that Romania is in the middle of a “perfect storm”.
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The information society based on technologies, as a phenomenon and consequence ofglobalization, favours the extension of threats and vulnerabilities while generating new meansand ways to combat them. The developments in information technology offer an unprecedentedamplification of human abilities to access critical information that governs any field of activity.In the context of the full NATO integration, the Romanian Armed Forces undergo profoundpolitical, economic, social and cultural transformations. This set of transformations affectsthe life of each of us. Therefore, “innovation”, as such, could become a “weapon” to defendagainst risks, anticipating the development of new vulnerabilities that will surely appear in thesociety of the coming decades.In this paper, I will summarize the presentation of some innovative ideas that may havethe effect of diminishing the vulnerability of military information transmitted in the electronicenvironment under the conditions of adopting a new development doctrine in Romania, theone of the information society based on knowledge, training and education.
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Any act of terrorism constitutes for the democratic societies a real psychological andemotional aggression, capable of producing fears in the mentality of the population. Froma semantic point of view, terrorism achieves its ultimate goal here, by creating a climate ofinsecurity, fear and terror. The act itself, which may be a conventional terrorist attack or onethat takes place in the online environment, is sufficient to profoundly influence professionalactivities, leisure and travel. Therefore, the profoundly intrusive and violent nature ofcyberterrorism can encourage the occurrence of psychiatric disorders or risky behaviour. Inorder to be able to correctly estimate the impact of cyberterrorism, we must first of all identifythe psychological profile of the cyber terrorist. Secondly, cyber terrorism is most often part ofconventional terrorism, and therefore has a similar impact.
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The reality of the current century is shaping new security challenges. Spectacular changesin terms of technological progress, the ubiquity of digital technologies, the digital revolution,the global digital order, the constantly increasing importance of digital platforms, the speed atwhich information is transmitted, the algorithmization of personal life, the power to direct andchange public opinion, are only a few features of the 21st century.With this evolution, threats, risk factors and current vulnerabilities of each state havereached new states of manifestation. In this context, the fake news phenomenon has thepotential to influence the attitude and change the perception of entire audience segments.A first step in combating this phenomenon is to familiarize the population with thisconcept that is rapidly becoming a threat. Building a strong security culture and identifyingvulnerabilities constitute important steps in establishing a good foundation for a secureenvironment.
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In the last four years, fake news has overtaken the cancan and the mundane world to beused as a “weapon” in the arsenal of social manipulation.Fake news is today a very effective tool by which democratic institutions are eroded and thestate entities demonized.Although most often the identity of the perpetrator, of the one who triggers a fake newsdirectly or through a software application, is unknown, the state must fulfil its obligation tomaintain national security and to ensure the nation’s defence, as well as to guarantee theexercise of the fundamental rights and freedoms of man and, increasingly, the obligation toguarantee the right of citizens to be properly and truthfully informed.The eradication of the fourth power, by shifting information from professionalism to the“tweet” news, makes these state obligations much more difficult to fulfil.This article brings to the readers’ attention a series of effects generated by fake news andhow they have or can have an impact on national security and national defence.
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Starting as a great science fiction movie topic, Artificial Intelligence has already begun toimpose itself on our society. If until recently it was not an extended phenomenon but rathera desideratum, a goal that seemed almost impossible to achieve, now things have changed.Artificial Intelligence has been on everyone lips in the last few years.We take advantage of its benefits whether we speak of automated responders and onlinecustomer support, smart personal assistants, autonomously-powered self-driving vehiclesor autonomous military systems. However, the technology is still in its infancy. Although theprogress made in this field is extraordinary, it is time to take into account how much of aneffect this technology will have on our future.
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The risks and threats of a conventional, unconventional, asymmetrical, and cyber naturebecome increasingly complex and unpredictable. Their combination generates the productionof apparent disturbances in the contemporary operational environment, with severeconsequences on the security of the states.A conclusion that emerges, analysing the evolution of the military phenomenon over thelast thirty years, is that, in the future, both great powers and non-state actors will resort to themost different actions to reach their interests. These actions have demonstrated their efficiencythrough their unusual nature and the lack of effective countermeasures such as informationwarfare, cyber warfare, network warfare, electronic warfare, psychological warfare, or mediawarfare.If the future of military action is to be marked by hybridity, states, alliances and coalitionsmust develop those conventional, unconventional, irregular and cyber capabilities that willensure the planning, preparation, execution, and evaluation of operations in the full spectrum.
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Over the last three centuries, on a historical scale, there has been an increase in thedynamics of social transformation events, sometimes even through the development of majorconflicts, as well as a progressive increase in the number of these periods of re-balancingof social systems, in a fine-tuning with the intensification of human evolution as a result ofthe increasingly large application of the results of the development of science. Althoughconflicts on the planetary scale were absent in the years after the Second World Conflagration,reducing the statistical totals regarding the number of victims associated with wars, actions ofa conflictual nature, including military, from the last quarter of a century, and the increasinglyclear sedimentation of a competitive multipolar world lead to the idea that these deep tectonicmovements, without major effects on the plane of humanity, can be transformed into a largesurface earthquake, definitive for the human nature.The two World Wars have unequivocally shown two sides of human irrationality thatpre-existed as arguments for fighting them: leaders with irrational visions and communitieswho believed and supported irrationally the implementation of those visions through wars.After all, there were vast communication processes that prepared and threw the world into thetwo disasters of the first half of the 20th century. We appreciate that, despite the exceptionallevel of scientific rationality and the exponential tendency of this rationality from the presentstage, we find ourselves again, as humanity, in a social environment increasingly prone to thecrystallisation of irrational collective options.Society, enclosed through many of its elements in a multidimensional global network, has,more than ever, possibilities of social communication that tend towards infinity. Who shouldbe the actors and how could they, given that there are several centres, carry out a possibleprocess, which we define conceptually as “strategic communication”, a process that willlead, in fact, to diminishing the irrationality of some leaders and/or communities and to thecounter-balancing of the destructive competition of the poles of power? Does society still havethe systemic immunity required to maintain its balance or to rebalance itself without reachingconflict?
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The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) concept is defined and used in managerial practice as a measurement system, as well as a strategic planning and management system, being implemented in business or industrial organisations, in the government system, or non-profit organisations. From the efficiency of management point of view, Balanced Scorecard uses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure performance within the organisation, through which it can add direct corrections in design, initiatives and daily activities for the achievement of strategic organising objectives. This article presents the role of Key Performance Indicators regarding the evaluation of the actions taken, the decision-making and the overall efficiency of the organization’s activity. Due to the concepts and functions developed within the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), rigorous determination of performance and counter-performance within an organisation (KPI), Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and its instrument of evaluation are also recommended for use in institutions within the defence, public order and national security system.
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The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) concept is defined and used in managerial practice asa measurement system, as well as a strategic planning and management system, beingimplemented in business or industrial organisations, in the government system, or in non-profitorganisations.In order to align the individual and collective efforts, respectively to create an effectiveinternal communication channel, the Balanced Scorecard concept provides an instrument witha strong visual and motivational impact – the strategic map.The strategic map creates the overall picture of the organisation, the objectives and theimplementation way for strategy, enables the employees to be aware of their own effort thatcontributes to the success of the implementation of the strategy and realises the frameworkof their own and institutional self-evaluation regarding the effectiveness of the actions taken.In this article, we will address the essential elements of a strategic map, the way of definingand selecting them, the relationship and interdependence of the elements and we willrecommend a strategic map starting from the vision, mission and transformation strategyexisting in the military structures of the operational level.
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Since appearing on the battlefield, in less than a decade, tanks have revolutionised theart of war. This article focuses on the use of tanks from the beginning to nowadays. We willshowcase some battles in which the tanks were used, in the First World War, in the Campaignsof East, West and North Africa of the Second World War and the conflicts of the last decades.
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