Challenges faced by the Hungarian Defense Forces in the 21st century

Abstract

International wars have become less frequent since the Second World War: the vast majority of armed conflicts take place between state and non-state actors, within the borders of nation states. Modern security forces, despite their number, equipment and training, are often unable to overcome a weaker non-state actor – even if it possesses considerably fewer traditional capabilities. This phenomenon is explained by the “theory of war generations”, born in the United States in the 1980s. The theory suggests that development of warfare is an evolutionary process, which can be divided into distinct generations by well-identified dialectical qualitative changes. The line of generations starts with the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which brought to an end the Dutch and the German phase of the Thirty Years’ War, resulting in a paradigm shift: at that time, warfare became the monopoly of the state, besides, the principle of territorial sovereignty and the system of modern nation states began to evolve.