Defence and strategy

Dear readers,

I want to introduce you the first issue of the Obrana a strategie journal of 2019 with three English language research articles and two book reviews in Czech. We have received a typical amount of articles to this issue; however, we decided to publish only three of them due to high-quality criteria. Obrana a strategie journal follows publication standards which are compatible with best databases; especially ones which are attractive for our visibility within world best databases.

Consequently, I am delighted to announce that Obrana a strategie has just been indexed in prestigious database The Emerging Sources Citation Index, under Web of Science and company Clarivate Analytics.

In 2019 we commemorate the foundation of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949 and the Czech Republic joining in 1999. Consequently, two of the texts are addressing the NATO topic, even though each from a different perspective.

The first text entitled Lagging Colossus or a Mature Cyber-Alliance? 20 Years of Cyber Defence in NATO stresses the importance of NATO anniversaries. Tomáš Maďar analyses the Alliance’s abilities to define cyber defence priorities in the past few years. He emphasises the contrast with important occasions in European security policy.

The next article deals with the same time framework. However, its main focus is on the Polish armed forces transformation. Eugeniusz Cieślak in Poland’s Armed Forces in NATO: Two Decades of Transformation discusses the influence of Poland’s membership on the organisation, personnel, education and training of Poland’s Armed Forces.

The third of the research articles Setting the Categorical Hydra Ablaze: Applying Clausewitz to the Fallacies of War Categorisation is a theoretical analysis by Samuel Žilinčík. The author aims to expose the fallacious thinking, which enables some of the categories of war to proliferate despite their questionable analytical usefulness.

Obrana a strategie 1/2019 closes with two reviews of new Czech publications. Jakub Fučík evaluates CSIRT: v přední linii boje proti kybernetickým hrozbám by Roman Pačka. The author proposes an in-depth analysis of Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT) in the context of national security. The last contribution, written by myself, is a review of the book Za oponou války by war correspondent Jakub Szántó. The book offers an excursion into tough times in the Middle East, which is still very attractive for academic research.

Finally, let me thank you for your ongoing interest on behalf of myself, the Editorial Board and all colleagues who contributed to this issue of the Obrana a strategie journal.

Předseda redakční rady

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