Defence and strategy

Dear readers,

I would like to introduce this year's first issue of Obrana a strategie journal with a number of expert articles and reviews of interesting publications.

The first among the reviewed articles was written by Jan Spišák and addresses the circumstances of development and implementation of the new operational concept of use of the armed forces of the United States. The article by Katarína Svitková deals with the position of the concept of “resilience” in the national security discourse of selected actors. The following text, whose author is Libor Kutěj, analyses the growth of the naval power of China and its political-military ambitions.

You can also find two articles which are dedicated to the issue of the so-called Islamic State. The first one by Jakub Rafay deals with its external operations wing, represented by the terrorist group Amn al-Kharji. The other, written by Michael Bátrla, focuses on the rivalry with al-Qaeda in the armed conflict in Yemen.

The issue of measures associated with the engineering support for movement, present requirements for military robots and their future application in movement supporting operations is tackled in the contribution of two authors, Michal Kopuletý and Ota Rolenec. In another paper, Jana Tůmová and Miroslav Jurásek examine the securitisation of the Mexican membership in the Union of South American Nations from the position of Brazil. Finally, the eighth and last reviewed article from the authors Moshe Yanovskiy and Ilia Zatcovetsky offers a case study focused on the problem of reduced military spending in democratic countries.

In addition to the articles, this issue also contains two reviews of interesting professional publications. Tomáš Maďar introduces the book There Will Be Cyberwar: How the Move to Network-Centric War Fighting Has Set the Stage for Cyberwar by Richard Stiennon. The other review, prepared by Antonín Novotný and Richard Stojar, focuses on the book called Na rozhraní: Krize a proměny současného světa, a collection compiled by Miroslav Bárta, Martin Kovář and Otakar Foltýn.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for your continued interest and support, and wish you pleasant, interesting and inspiring reading.

Chairman of the Editoral Board

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