Challenges to national defence in contemporary geopolitical situation

This paper is partly devoted to defining economic warfare and its position in the system of international relations. The role of economic warfare in shaping internal and external policies of s country is described in selected examples using the historical-logical method. The article provides a typology of the elements of trade warfare. Based on the analysis of selected determinants, the latest facts of trade warfare after the year 2015 are analysed. The treatise concludes: a trade war in one sector of the economy may spread into other sectors, whereas economic warfare is a priori waged against an economy.