Vojenské rozhledy / Czech Military Review Nr. 1/2026, Vol. XXXV. (LXVII.): 180-199 | DOI: 10.3849/2336-2995.35.2026.01.180-199
Current Status and Some Future Challenges of Information Environment Defense in the Czech Republic and AbroadReviewed - Review
- Univerzita obrany, Brno, Česká republika
The article addresses the issue of information environment defence in the current security context, with a special focus on cognitive warfare as one of the key and rapidly developing challenges of recent years. The aim of this overview article is to place this phenomenon within a broader security-strategic framework of information environment defence and to describe how this area is conceptually and institutionally approached in the Czech Republic and in selected NATO Allies – specifically in the United Kingdom, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, and Slovakia. The article is primarily based on publicly available strategic and conceptual documents and official policies of individual countries. On this basis, the article identifies the basic common features and differences in their approaches to information environment defence, while also drawing conclusions about some future challenges in this area.
Keywords: Security Policy; Hybrid Threats; Information Environment; Cognitive Warfare; Resilience.
Published: June 30, 2026 Show citation
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Current Status and Some Future Challenges of Information Environment Defense in the Czech Republic and Abroad. Czech Military Review, 107(1), 180-199. doi: 10.3849/2336-2995.35.2026.01.180-199
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