Strategic Impact

STRUCTURING RESILIENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF COMMON SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY

Dragoș ILINCA — 2023-09-28

Resilience is a dimension with a pronounced multidisciplinary character covering a wide range of areas of society, which gives it a fluid profile and difficult to fit into a conceptual-functional typology. The interest in resilience is undoubtedly one of the trends of the current decade, however precursory elements are found throughout history in the most diverse forms of manifestation. As in the case of other dimensions explored in recent years from the perspective of European cooperation in the field of security and defence, resilience was quickly integrated into the steps carried out under the auspices of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), becoming one of the key objectives of the European Union’s external action toolkit and, last but not least, of the operational commitments carried out globally by this organization. The contribution of the EU Global Security Strategy (EUGS) in designing resilience as a central element of the European security and defence cooperation agenda was defining. The main direction promoted by the EUGS was to strengthen resilience aspects in external action, while taking a structured approach to exploring options for strengthening internal resilience. Subsequently, the outbreak of the war in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s aggression additionally valued the strategic significance of states’ resilience and, subsequently, the importance of the EU’s contribution in this direction. This study is aiming to bring into light the way in which CSDP answers to the challenge of consolidating the resilience. In this vein, the methodological approach that was implemented responded the multidisciplinary character of this topic. In order to consolidate the comprehensive character of the present study, a historical perspective has been used that correlates the evolution of resilience in EU context with the development of various CSDP instruments. In this sense, an important direction of research is represented by the interaction between resilience and EU’s external action and how the EU response to crisis situations has evolved. To a similar extent, this paper approached the resilience from the perspective of internal security of European Union, especially in the context of the war in Ukraine. A special note is made on how the latest EU strategic document (Strategic Compass) placed resilience as being one of the strategic objectives of CSDP. Given all of these aspects, the main conclusions of the article are emphasising the importance of adequate calibration of national approach in generating resilience, not only in the conceptual area but also on the practical aspects such as capabilities and resources required by a strong resilience. At the same time, a special attention is given to how the partnership and external interaction, especially between EU and NATO, are tailored to enhance and complement the national contributions in the field of resilience.

GUIDE FOR AUTHORS

Iulia Cojocaru — 2023-09-28

EDITOR’S NOTE

Florian CÎRCIUMARU — 2023-09-28

SOFT COMPUTING IN PREVENTING RANSOMWARE RELYING ON LARGER-SCALE DATA AND ANALYSIS

Attila Mate KOVACS — 2023-09-28

Ransomware attacks continue to pose a significant threat to organizations and individuals worldwide. The attackers’ ability to constantly evolve and adapt their tactics challenges traditional cybersecurity approaches to keep pace. Ransomware attacks targeting the healthcare industry accounted for 45% of all reported cyberattacks. The nature and scale of attacks and the increasing healthcare technology adoption will continue to pose ransomware attack risks. However, by collecting and analyzing large volumes of data and applying soft computing techniques, cybersecurity experts can improve their ability to detect and prevent ransomware attacks. As a result, soft computing offers options for detecting and preventing malware attacks. Using methods from the field of soft computing, such as fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms, makes it possible to conduct a thorough analysis of large data sets. These can yield insightful information that can help recognize and react to ransomware attacks. These techniques can also help to decrypt files that have been encrypted using ransomware.

COMPLEX SECURITY CHALLENGES ̶ COMPLEX RESPONSES

Endre SZŰCS — 2023-09-28

Due to the increasing complexity of the security challenges, it is necessary to change the approach and understand security in a much more complex way than before. We consider it even more important to provide the capabilities needed to meet complex security challenges than changing the theoretical approach. Without providing the necessary capabilities, we will not have a chance to prevent and manage complex security challenges. In the present article, we examine the possibility to ensure complex military and civilian capabilities corresponding to complex security challenges. Also, it is being considered the development and the usability of the defence planning system, generated and used by the military, in order to provide civilian capabilities. Furthermore, we propose to set a parallel structure for military and civilian capability development to provide adequate complex capabilities for complex challenges.

SANCTIONS EVASION AND VIRTUAL ASSETS: IMPLICATIONS FOR NATIONAL SECURITY

Bogdan VACUSTA — 2023-09-28

2022 was the year marking a significant increase in the use of virtual assets for illicit activities such as sanctions evasion. Most of the entities conducting these activities are linked to Russia, North Korea and Iran, which are subject to international sanctions imposed by the international community. The paper presents key elements about the use of virtual assets in illicit activities by sanctioned entities and highlights the necessity to increase defence and intelligence resources for better data analysis on this type of entities. Analyzing data about virtual assets transactions requires strong collaboration between public and private organizations, with a focus on an intelligence-led approach, considering the growing links between cybercrime, money laundering, terrorist financing, special operations conducted by adversaries. In order to support this collaboration, it is essential to prioritize the education of decision-makers on the necessity to focus on technical data.

A REALIST PERSPECTIVE ON THE WORLD BEFORE THE WAR IN UKRAINE: WAS THE PANDEMIC AN INHIBITOR OF THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER?

Alexandra SARCINSCHI — 2023-09-28

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the world to consider an increase in international cooperation to manage this security threat, particularly under the WHO and with the support of the great powers. The surprise was that the WHO was accused of failure and the great powers developed protectionist and nationalist tendencies, with states coming to the fore once again as the most important actors in world politics. In this context, the paper explores a trend that continued to exist even during the pandemic, even though the war in Ukraine was clearly not on the international agenda: namely a continuation of the struggle for power as traditional Realism define it, but with new sources of power to be explored according to the current trends in the security environment: medical resources and a continuing development of military power, despite the economic problems that have arisen.

STRATEGIC DIALOGUE

2023-09-28