For the purposes of this article it has been assumed that the army should not become an autonomous constituent of the state’s structure, since this would pose a threat of taking over a dominant position by this specific formation. The aim of the article is to analyze the modification of the reasons for the outbreak of war, and the means of conducting it. The ongoing changes in the security environment, both in national and worldwide scale, as well as the proceeding national interests of our country imply increasingly advanced tasks for the army and considerably extend their range. The process of transformation in the Polish army is being continued. Further changes are targeted at increasing operational capability in order to enable efficient accomplishment of domestic tasks and performing missions outside its borders. In the contemporary international reality there is a prevailing conviction, that the threat of the outbreak of a global-scale war is rather unlikely. However, other jeopardies and risks have recently come to the fore.

In order to describe the environment surrounding us, so complex in terms of relations resulting from using violence, we easily employ terms such as ‘partisan’ or ‘militant’, just in order to define the very same ones as terrorists a while later. Probably the benchmark of contemporary description, especially of political action is the lack of clear-cut attitudes. Terrorism is nothing new, and this statement in itself is not very revealing. However, for many contemporary researchers of this issue, there is never too much information. Terrorism has always accompanied the history of oppressive regimes as well as resistance movements and uprisings. All the same, within the anti- colonial insurrectionary movements of the mid-20th century which led to the fall of European colonial empires over a short period of time, terrorism achieved new quality. It should also be emphasized that it achieved considerable political successes compared to the social-revolutionary terrorism of the late 19th century. The attribute ‘terrorist’ serves as an excluding one in different relations. By employing such term, one that their cause is an unconventional one – leastways as long as specific ways of using violence are applied. On the other hand, groups classified as terrorist ones often describe themselves as partisans who are fighting for the liberation of certain social or ethnic groups and who have to employ “unconventional” methods of using force because of the military superiority of the oppressive regime. By describing certain actions as ‘terrorist’ one usually intends on bereaving it of every sort of political legitimation. Is there any aspect that terrorism and guerrilla actions have in common? In certain socio-revolutionary or ethno-separatist strategies of violence, the concept of terrorism consists in the idea of a ‘starter’ which is to create the conditions to commence the guerrilla war. There could also be groups acting as partisans on one front line, and as terrorists on the other. The example is Al-Qaeda: in Central Asia its network operated only temporarily, as a kind of guerrilla, while in the global scale it employed terrorist strategy.

The actions indicated above and taken by the United Nations and the European Union (in spite of their different international law status) argue that objectives attributed to international organisations are not only postulates, but a basis for actions taken specifically, both in the legal and actual dimension. Therefore, the main research objective adopted for this study was to bring them closer, with particular emphasis on the UN and the EU joint actions for international security. Due to the complexity and multifaceted nature of the discussed subject matter of these considerations, they will be confined to the T-306/01 Ahmed Ali Yusuf and Al Barakaat International Foundation case recognized by the EU Court of First Instance. In there, as in a lens, interrelationships between the international organisations in questions are concentrated; and not only in terms of international cooperation, but, more importantly, in terms of the principle of the primacy of the United Nations law over other legal regimes.

The Armenia – Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict and New Threats to the International Security Architecture in the Modern Period: Challenges and Responses

In the paper, we present new threats and dangers in the present international arena and their impact on the system of international security. We analyze the causes and development of these issues the international law system, paying particular attention to the case of Armenian-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts. We also discuss possible solutions to these problems proposed by experts. Some of the most interesting issues we address in the paper include the increasing activity of ISIL, cybercrimes, Ukraine crisis, immigration flow to Europe in recent years. All these problems are viewed from the multicultural perspective. We also analyze the genesis of ethnic conflicts, and put forward some recommendations for resolving them. We discuss the factors that led to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts, possible solutions to this problem, and a dangerous double standard policy. Terrorist threats, as well as “frozen” conflicts, resulted in the need for deepening interstate cooperation in the security sector.

Wobec coraz częstszych przejawów terroryzmu wewnętrznego, krajowego (zamykającego się w granicach jednego państwa) i zewnętrznego, transnarodowego (obejmującego swym zasięgiem działania więcej niż jednego państwa, transgranicznego), powstają pytania, który rodzaj terroryzmu – wewnętrzny czy zewnętrzny staje się większym zagrożeniem bezpieczeństwa? W jaki sposób terroryści adaptują się do wewnątrzkrajowych (defensywnych) środków bezpieczeństwa oraz zewnętrznych (ofensywnych) środków wykorzystywanych przez państwa w wojnie z terroryzmem? Jak przemiany terroryzmu w wymiarze motywacyjnym, a więc wartości i zasady służące terrorystom jako uzasadnienie stosowania przemocy, zwłaszcza odejście od świeckich ideologii politycznych, lewicowych, w kierunku uzasadnienia religijnego, wpływają na ewolucję terroryzmu jako zagrożenia dla jednostek i ich grup? Kto lub co jest celem ataków współczesnych grup terrorystycznych? Celem tego artykułu jest udzielenie odpowiedzi na powyższe pytania w oparciu o bogatą literaturę oraz dane na temat terroryzmu, pochodzące z dwóch baz danych, tj. The International Terrorism: Attributes of Terrorist Events (ITERATE), a także Global Terrorism information hub (GTD). Rozważania teoretyczne zostaną oparte na na modelu ekonomicznej racjonalności działania terrorystów przedstawionym przez Williama M. Landesa w 1978 roku.

In international relations theory alliances are often regarded as factors influencing the incidence of interstate war. This study statistically examines this claim on a population of cases taken from the Correlates of War project data sets, consisting of 3216 instances of militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) that occurred in the period 1816 – 2000, 307 of which were wars. In the test, this initial data set has been divided into three sub-sets comprising: (1) originator dyads, (2) originators-as-initiators-and-joiners-astargets dyads, and (3) joiners-as-initiators-andoriginators- as-targets dyads; and ten variables were used to determine the impact of alliances on whether MIDs will become wars. These variables included unit-, dyad-, and system-level indicators of the presence of alliances, their capabilities and tightness. Combined, this enabled the analysis to test hypotheses related to the capability-aggregation and war-diffusion functions of alliances as well as arguments on the relationship between polarity and war.

Społeczność międzynarodowa jest nieustannie zmuszana do konfrontacji z zagrożeniem ze strony islamskiego terroryzmu w różnych częściach świata, w tym w wielu częściach Afryki, jak np. w Nigerii, gdzie dżihadystowskie powstanie Boko Haram przekształciło się w konflikt regionalny. W przeszłości grupa była powszechnie określana jako sekta religijna, obecnie uznaje się ją za organizację terrorystyczną. Pomimo różnic w metodach działania jest porównywana do Al-Kaidy, Państwa Islamskiego i Talibów. Od marca 2015 roku należy do sieci prowincji Państwa Islamskiego, w związku ze złożeniem przysięgi wierności kalifowi Abu Bakrowi Al-Baghdadiemu. Niniejsza publikacja ma na celu przeanalizowanie fenomenu Boko Haram oraz połączenia jej ze zjawiskiem tworzenia samozwańczych kalifatów. Artykuł uwzględnia nigeryjską tożsamość religijną, etniczną i regionalną, aby wskazać oddziaływanie Boko Haram na bezpieczeństwo międzynarodowe.

The main objective set by many countries is ensuring security. The means to accomplish this goal are the armed forces, obliged to guarantee safe functioning of the state and its citizens. There are states, for which maintaining a powerful, modern army has enormous significance for their superpower status, for their preparedness to a potential conflict or as a deterrent for the neighbouring states. Therefore, in the following text I will deal with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, because of its history, and especially due to the region where it is situated - one of the hottest places on Earth, full of misunderstandings, disputes and conflicts causing that the states situated there, including Vietnam, are modernising their armies.

The article highlights the main developments in the study of state fragility in the period between 2015 and 2019. The goal is to cover the main trends in the study of the subject as well as the most prominent projects of recent years. The article presents the main findings and recommendations of different international agencies, including the reports by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, LSE-Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, United States Institute for Peace Fragility Study Group and the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States. The article covers the main approaches to state fragility, recent academic novelties and trends in the field. Among these is popularizing the notion of resilience in a set of OECD States of Fragility reports. The fragility trap and regarding state fragility as a syndrome with a set of symptoms is analyzed on the basis of the Commission on State Fragility report. The US agencies’ attitude is also taken into account. The preventive approach towards extremism and fragile states as well as the steps to be taken by different agencies together with international partners are covered in this article. Fragility Study Group, the Task Force on Extremism in Fragile States, and Global Fragility Act are analyzed as interconnected and a part of the same doctrine and political strategy towards the four-S framework implementation. The article acknowledges the continuity in the work of different research groups that culminated in the Global Fragility Act. The need to reconsider previous approaches to the root causes of state fragility is emphasized. The importance of coordinated prevention in fragile states and conflict-affected areas is seen as critical for international security. The article also traces recent adjustments in the attitude toward the main gaps in state functions and the views on the root causes of state fragility and ways to combat the issue and the emerging security, political and economic threats.

This work presents the methodology of the Russian impact on Latvia after 1991. It defines and specifies the scope of methods concerning both the hard and soft power in international relations in the 21st century, particularly the ones used to implement the Russian Federation’s foreign policy. The implemented strategies and impact models are described. The work is also focused on certain indicators used in global rankings by experts worldwide. In the 21st century, it is no longer enough to employ the hard power methods as it is advisable to use the soft power ones, which may bring about much better results than the hard ones.

This article presents the research results, which set out to explain the mechanisms leading to the achievement of dominance by the Russian Federation in the international security environment. In the research process, the systemic approach was applied. Analysis and criticism of the literature, non-participatory observation and case study elements were used to solve the research problems. As a result, it was determined that the theoretical basis for the Russian Federation's achievement of international dominance is the concept of new generation war. The model of the strategic influence of the Russian Federation is directed at the shaping of the security environment and includes the synchronisation of kinetic and non-kinetic measures, indirect and direct effects, the blurring of the boundaries between war and peace and the application of pressure and aggression. The Russian Federation achieves strategic dominance through asymmetry, chaos, reflexive control, and strategic deterrence. Armed forces provide a key role in asserting dominance, focused on conducting offensive activities and inflicting losses with conventional and nuclear weapons.

The article is the attempt of introduction to the subject of the Polish Presidency the security perceived through the functioning of the national and the European Union’s (EU) secret services. The secret service understood as the service of the intelligence and counterintelligence (of security), legally authorized. The subject issues are presented in the aspect of the approaching Polish Presidency. During this time Poland can and should contribute to the improvement of security measures of the continent through its commitment and contribution to the construction of the secret service of the EU. Europe, if it wants to be a taken into the account player on the political, economical and cultural arena, needs to integrate. Otherwise it will still be a marginal continent. This determinant should effectively defeat the national prejudices and phobias. It needs to be remembered that the current crisis, consistently called economical, has deeper sources and wider roots. It generally concerns the whole, so called western lifestyle which is determined by the political and economical society structure. The countries of the EU of the Central- Eastern area can bring many new and positive values integrating Europe and thereby limit the barriers in the aspect of building the measures of partnership and trust.

The Presidency of European Union (EU) plays an important role in the functioning of the whole organisation. First of all, it is the propelling force for new decisions and policies in every area. Interior and exterior security of the EU (especially terrorism and its prevention) has become major issues in recent years. Terrorist attacks in London and Madrid not only made us realise that interior security was threatened, but also that this problem is connected to the exterior environment. In eff ect, many documents referring to fi ghting terrorism have come into existence. It have shown a big demand for creating instruments that would deal with security issues. Moreover, many of the Union’s institutions have been granted rights to combat it. That is why it is legitimate to look closer at the output of previous Presidencies in the area of freedom, security, and justice. This paper aims at listing matters connected to the EU’s security through the analysis of priorities and conclusions of the Presidencies in years 2005–2010, and the effects coming from Work Programmes’ guidelines with simultaneous pointing to often different goals set by particular countries.

The second half of the 20th century can be referred to as a considerable increase of martial and non-martial politically-military blocs existing back then. Political changes that were initiated in the 90s of the previous century have considerably changed geopolitical and geostrategic situation of virtually every country. What has also undergone a visible change was international security, the latter being manifested in the security of regions and states. These complex conditions constituted the grounds for new threats, appearing in addition to the already existing ones. The scale and significance of the latter came as a great surprise for international community. Apart from military threats there were a number of non-military ones, the sources of which could be traced back to civilisation and social progress. Some of the threats are the conflicts of national, ethnic and religion background as well as mass migration of people, organized crime, information theft , terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to name but few. The phenomena and the events that took place at the turn of the centuries point at advanced asymmetric activities which off er numerous possibilities to the offenders due to variety of the means that can be implemented. They infringe internal as well as external security of particular states.

This article presents the results of research which set out to clarify the principles of the use of nuclear weapons and deterrence mechanisms in order to achieve dominance by the Russian Federation in the international security environment. Analysis and criticism of the literature, nonparticipatory observation and elements of case study were used to solve the research problems. The research process established that the Russian Federation will conduct campaigns to undermine the existing international security order using military means, including nuclear weapons. The nuclear component is an inherent element of the Russian Federation’s policy shaping the international security environment and at the same time is a key factor in the holistic concept of coercion. Strategic deterrence is a mechanism for achieving international dominance in peacetime, crisis situations, and war. Its purpose is to bring about concessions and coerce behavior consistent with the strategic interests of the Russian Federation. Nuclear weapons are the ultimate guarantee of the Russian Federation’s strategic dominance in the world. On the other hand, the constantly lowered threshold of its use leads to the degradation of the security environment and the violation of its stability.

Due to the rapid development of technology after the Second World War, the way of conducting conflict has changed significantly. One of the branches of the armaments industry that has developed the most is space technology and related to it ballistic missiles. Undoubtedly, possession by international entity ballistic missile technology, especially in connection with weapons of mass destruction, increases the importance and role of this entity on the international arena. Therefore, the proliferation of this technology or ready-made missile systems has a significant impact on regional and international security. Therefore, in order to explain this phenomenon, the first part of the article describes the role of ballistic missiles for international security. In the second part, author describes varied ways how international actor, such a state or organization may come into possession of ballistic missiles and also the methods used to stop or limit proliferation i.e. counter-proliferation methods. The last part of this article describes the ways how selected examples states such us Egypt, People’s Republic of China, Israel, India, North Korea, Iraq and South Africa have come into possession of ballistic missile technology. In connection with the above, it will be possible to show what proliferation of this kind of technology looked like and may look like in practice.

The article aims to analyze food security from the perspective of international security studies. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in February 2022 has generated renewed interest in food security. The undeniable links between war and famine have taken on an added dimension in this conflict due to the importance of both warring parties to the global food market. While the way food security is conceptualized points to its indirect relationship with international security, the change that took place in the study of international security after the Cold War recognized socio-economic problems as equivalent of threats to the national security. The analysis allowed the following conclusions. First, food security should be treated as a new research area of international security because it challenges the stability of the global socio-economic system. Second, as the 2008 and 2010–2011 food crises, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine have shown, food insecurity generates threats to international security.

Middle East countries towards Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022. The position of Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran

The Middle East is particularly vulnerable to armed conflicts and other acts of aggression due to its ethnic, religious and cultural diversity. The war in Ukraine poses a political and economic challenge to the Middle East states, as follows from various diplomatic relations between them and the Russian Federation and Ukraine. After February 24, 2022, the leaders and governments of the Middle East countries issued a series of statements in which they tried to express their position on the declaration of independence of the separatist Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics and the invasion of Ukraine. Among the countries of the Middle East that have expressed their position on the armed conflict in Ukraine, it is particularly worth paying attention to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran. These three states constitute the largest political, economic and military forces in the region and a different approach to relations with the Russian Federation as the main factor shaping their position on the armed conflict in Europe

The purpose of the research, the results of which are presented in this article, was to clarify the mechanisms of strategic competition and to identify the challenges and threats arising from it for international security. A systemic approach, literature analysis and criticism, non-participatory observation, and a case study were used to solve the research problems. In the research process, it was established that strategic competition is constantly intensifying, and its consequences can harm global security. The process of strategic competition should be viewed as challenges that, if not addressed, can quickly develop into new threats. The most significant threats to international security are related to the ambitions of revisionist states seeking territorial claims and expanding spheres of influence. Although the risk of global war remains relatively low, states will seek to permanently influence their competitors in the gray zone through soft instruments. Soft influence instruments will dominate it. The effectiveness of these tools will be determined by the world’s interconnectedness in the economic and political spheres. States will try to achieve their strategic goals in cyberspace and narrative using traditional mass media and social media.