Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

Wars and armed conflicts have accompanied mankind from the beginning of history and belong to the category of social phenomena. They became a permanent part of the historical process and are changing with it. Throughout history, wars have changed, as have views on the phenomenon of war, on war theories and strategic concepts. These views were and are a derivative of the progress of civilization. Since the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, societies and nations have been the cause and target of wars to the larger extent than countries. Territory and power are no longer the primary causes and goals of armed conflicts. The analysis of these changes allows us to call these phenomena “new wars”. The article presents the issues of changes and transformations of wars and armed conflicts. It was stated that defining war as a political act was no longer sufficient. It was also established that in a changing world, new forms of war existed and would continue to emerge. The classic war, however, is not yet gone.

The author of this article, using the heritage of history, analyzes some themes that shape Polish penitentiary policy. The issuses are connected with the religious context in the area of remedial influence on people isolated in prison. Religion, which is now present in social area, was not always accepted by people who play important roles in the state and in the prison system due to their views. Therefore, the author asks the question of a potential factor that would affect the people in order to be able to function according to social expectations. It can be considered that remedial actions on the basis of religious or secular methods may be a starting point for developing an expected repair model. It is also noticed that faith and religiosity can cause the transformation of imprisoned people, initiate it.

The article presents an in-depth identification of the polemological aspects of research on the subject of wars and armed conflicts of the 21st century. Moreover, it discusses the evolution, scale and nature of contemporary, as well as future wars and armed conflicts. The article refers to the essence, properties and characteristics of ‘new wars’ and the possibility of studying them by using appropriate instruments. Based on the conducted research, an attempt is made at forecasting wars and armed conflicts of the future. The article also highlights the activities and functioning of contemporary research institutes and facilities engaged in the analysis of war and armed conflicts, and focuses on the legitimacy and needs of implementing the polemological approach to the research of the presented subject in the present global-informational security conditions.

Polemology and irenology that have been evolving since the Second World War are relatively unknown. There is much misunderstanding about polemology and irenology and what can be done with research results. The methodological competition between polemology and irenology indicates their differences due to the opposite research subject (war-peace), the system of concepts, and the usefulness of research results. The aim of the article is to present the basic assumptions of irenological and polemological research and to propose a common area of research on peace and armed conflicts. The article presents a thesis about the need to integrate polemological and irenological research. Due to the research problem and the subject of research, a qualitative strategy and appropriate research methods were used in the research process. The obtained research result indicates that it is not justified to conduct research on peace and armed conflicts separately, but as a whole as a study of peace and armed conflicts. The conclusions from the research indicate that the genesis, diagnosis and prognosis of peace and conflict-related processes is justified in the range of long cycles from minus 50 to plus 50 years in relation to the started research process.

The world faces new challenges and threats to international security environment, among which a key role play different types of cyberthreats. This follows, primarily the global links in a cyberspace in terms of critical infrastructure of the state’s and intergovernment’s objects in the international security environment and the fact that the cyberaggressor’s tools are becoming cheaper, and their skills are more and more advanced. There is an urgent need for the analysis of present and future cyberthreats in the security environment, to understand their impact on everone, States, Nations and organizations and develop effective methods of response in this highly complex reality. The article presents the concept of defining of main types of cyberhreats (i.e. information warfare, cyberterrorism, cybercrime and cyberespionage) on the base of the new theoretical approach of modern security environment model.