Abstract

Social transformations occurring in the world today became a result of globalization, information, changes in the international balance of power, and are reflected in all aspects of political development. One of the most pressing challenges of our time, a consequence of these processes, is the evolution of forms and methods of armed violence. This publication is devoted to determining the specific and major trends transforming the forms and methods of armed violence. Instead of the traditional military conflicts, new forms and means of armed confrontation emerge. Asymmetrical conflicts taking place with the participation of non-state parties and irregular armed groups, are quite common at the moment. «Hard power» methods associated with the use of direct violence are supplemented by means of «soft power». Violent but non-traditional (non-military) means of confrontation widen, with informational and psychological influence becoming particularly prominent. Infotechnological and infopsychological methods of intervention have become an integral part of modern military-political confrontation, taking form of hybrid, network and network-centric warfare. The hybrid military conflicts are typically distinguished by asymmetry, latency, priority of small-scale combat actions and dynamic use of indirect violence. Network-centric warfare focused on achieving information superiority over the enemy, complex effects on the enemy’s physical, informational and cognitive domains, strategic flexibility and adaptability, priority of horizontal ties over traditional vertical hierarchy. Horizontal network infrastructure, consisting of multiple independent, highly specialized and geographically dispersed units, determines the effectiveness of network war strategy today. Apart from qualitative changes associated with emergence and proliferation of new forms of armed violence on a global scale, there is a definite global increase in its quantitative characteristics. In particular, this is reflected in intensification and incremental growth of the number and duration of military and political conflicts. These trends, which are a reflection of global transformation processes the modern world is going through, constitute the new challenges and threats to national and international security.