Defence and strategy

Dear readers,

In this current issue you will find eight articles. The selection of topics covered by the authors is truly diverse - from insurgency warfare to lethal autonomous weapons to the development of conceptual and strategic documents. Let me now briefly introduce them:

In the first article, Tomas Lalkovic examines the influence of geographical factors on the strategies of insurgent groups in Sri Lanka and the Philippines. He does so on the basis of categories derived from the work of David Galula.

The second article, by Tomas Zwiefelhofer, analyses a decade of military engagement by the Kenyan armed forces in Somalia. Part of the text is based on interviews with Kenyan soldiers and experts.

In the third text, Lujza Chrvalová introduces the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems and the pitfalls of their potential international regulation. The author discusses the progress made and the attitudes of selected actors.

In the fourth article, Slovenian author Miha Šlebir expands the possibilities of applying a systems approach in the study of military. He then applies the proposed theory on the case of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The fifth article, by a collective of authors from the Centre for Security and Military Strategic Studies, contributes to the broad debate on hybrid threats. The text uses five case studies to test four defined dimensions of hybrid interference.

Eva Štěpánková and Jiří Richter use interviews to develop a theory of strategic and conceptual document creation. The study, whose object was the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic, is based on the grounded theory method.

The seventh article responds to a contemporary topic - the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Veronika D'Evereux discusses the international law aspects of this act and some specific incidents.

The last, eighth article by Matej Kandrik, Josef Procházka and Alexandra Paprčková deals with the issue of preparing citizens for national defence. In their conceptualization, they point out that effective preparation of the population is a combined governmental and societal effort.

This issue does not include reviews of scholarly publications, both because of the relatively high number of original articles and because the Editorial Board indicated that this format should no longer be the primary focus of the journal.

Dear readers, on behalf of the entire Editorial Board, thank you for your continued support even in these turbulent times.

Chairman of the Editorial Board