Editorial

Today, cyberspace is deeply challenged by a variety of largely political concerns. This new humanizing of cyberspace may seem fitting to some who fretted for years over a relative lack of high-level political interest in the world’s only new “domain.” With cyber now being the topic of the day, it is easy to forget that, however notional, cyber was considered too technical to be worthy of elite policy attention until suddenly it was red hot and everywhere.

In recent years, the notion of resilience has experienced an astonishing expansion away from the area of its original application and transformation of its meaning.

Digitalization has made our societies vulnerable to cyber threats – from electric grids to elections. This is also true for militaries, and cyber defence has become a natural task for all defence organizations. Cyber threats cannot be considered as new threats anymore. However, the cyber threat landscape is changing rapidly, and will continue to do so. Malicious viruses, hackers, hacking, etc., are still part of this landscape, but cyber weapons and cyberattacks originating from nation states are the primary security concerns today.

None of the important time-critical processes described and analyzed in the articles presented here could have been realized without expert advice provided by NATO initiatives and the cooperation with NATO member and partner coun­tries. Thus, the Defense Education Enhancement Program (DEEP) played and continues to play a crucial role in Professional Military Education (PME) and in­teroperability in the Southern Caucasus.