The Fall 2020 issue of Connections: The Quarterly Journal presents a variety of security-related applications of the concept of resilience. Two articles address the relation to cybersecurity – one presenting a framework for assessing national cyber resilience, and the other the need to enhance the resilience of the armed forces to cyberattacks as one of the tools for hybrid warfare.

The Summer 2020 issue of Connections: The Quarterly Journal is dedicated to the concept of resilience, its evolution from the field of engineering, through psychology and to the ubiquitous referencing to resilience in numerous security and defense policy documents. The first article provides an excellent overview of this evolution and highlights the main points of friction between theory and practice. It is followed by presentation of a simple structure of the concept, yet with anticipation of its high utility.

This issue of Connections. The Quarterly Journal looks into a number of issues: professional military education and its role in deepening defense capabil­ities with a special focus on the South Caucasus, the defense cooperation of the South Caucasus nations with both Russia and NATO which may result in a new form of a ‘Great Game’ rivalry between the cooperation partners, the specific ‘military school culture’ of the Dr.

COVID-19 caught most international security academics by surprise. Initial articles featured the role of China and Russia in the pandemic. As of April 2020, Marshall Center faculty members and befriended academics of the Partnership for Peace Consortium started to write how Beijing and Moscow were trolling Europe's public with disinformation, propagandistic aid campaigns, and winkingly promoting authoritarian ways as superior to western models in handling a crisis.

Digitalization made our societies and admed forces vulnerable to cyber threats, turning cyber defense into a natural task for all defense organizations. This issue of Connections: The Quarterly Journal looks into the experience of Austria, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, providing valuable examples of policies, doctrinal aspects, organization and procedures the military applies to counter cyber threats.

Этот специальный выпуск журнала Connections посвящен безопасности, интеграции и будущему Балкан. В издании рассмотрены внутренние и внешние факторы, влияющие на регион. Всесторонне рассматриваются такие разнообразные вопросы, как национализм, роль организованной преступности, пагубное иностранное вмешательство и интеграция в ЕС/НАТО. Цель этого специального выпуска - дать широкой аудитории, включая студентов, военных и политиков, понимание проблем и, в особенности, потенциала Балканского региона в ближайшее десятилетие и в более отдалённой перспективе.

At the threshold of its third year, Russia's large-scale and brutal war against Ukraine continues to kill thousands, terrorize millions of Ukrainians, and disrupt international supply chains, affecting global energy and food markets. This is the second journal issue dedicated to the ongoing war. It dwells on the issue of lustration -- a problem Ukraine did not effectively address during its post-communist transition, which in turn led to the perpetuation of the Kremlin's ideology and, thus, its continuous influence on Ukrainian politics and society.

This issue of Connections delves into pressing security challenges of global significance: The role of pre-Internet social networks on the growth of civilizations, what small nations can learn from non-profits to enhance defense acquisition, the evolving landscape of hybrid warfare, exacerbated by the COVID pandemic and cyber-social vulnerabilities, the growing cyber threats to maritime industries, the propagation of radicalism via social media, and the evolution of the international perceptions of the Taliban.

NATO is faced with adversaries undertaking acts of aggression that deliberately stay below the lethal force threshold or aim to trigger a lethal response from NATO and incur costs to the Alliance such as undesired escalation, risks of collateral damage, including civilian casualties, or negative narratives. Examples of these activities range from dangerous aerial and maritime approaches, fomenting unrest and using refugees as a weapon, and even use of force short of lethal to intimidate opponents.

In the early hours of February 24, 2022, Russian and proxy military attacked Ukraine from the north, east, and south. In parallel, Russia conducted massive cyberattacks and propaganda campaigns. To the surprise of many analysts, Ukraine demonstrated exceptional cohesion, resilience, and will to fight. The raging war is already influencing the international security environment and the thinking on societal preparedness, military capabilities and operations, and will continue to do so in the coming decades.