CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES AS STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES IN HYBRID WARFARE

The current and future war is of hybrid nature, in which military actions are complementary to actions of economical, political, ideological and diplomatic nature. In this communication, I refer to the domains in which we encounter critical infrastructures and I demonstrate that these critical infrastructures are objectives of strategic importance for both the defender and the attacker.

EDUCATION AS A CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Education is generally considered only a social process. Complexity, importance, flexibility and social security are strong arguments in defining education as a critical infrastructure. The educational system as a formal part of education is the one analyzed and the result fully gives education the status of critical infrastructure.

THE IMPACT OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES ON ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

The usefulness of critical infrastructure is identified by the goods produced and services provided to society, with great efforts, including the protection of the environment and human health. In this article, the impact of critical infrastructures on the environment is examined from the perspective of environmental factors. Thus, the impact of critical infrastructures on the main environmental factors is examined from the perspective of air, water and soil pollution. Nowadays, the effects of environmental factors, including those produced by critical infrastructure, were seen most strongly in both climate change and the human health. This shows a series of chain reaction effects on nature, plants, animals and people around the world. The endeavor of several states and relevant organizations consists in the considerable effort to mitigate these effects.

PROTECTION OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FROM EMERGING THREATS

Today's society is in a continuous transformation towards a digitalized society. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated worldwide the transition from the physical to the online environment of services provided by both public and private institutions. With a digitized society in our defense types of risks, threats and risks to critical infrastructures that support digital evolution. Thus, opponents turn their attention to new forms of asymmetric attacks to generate states of terror against states or individuals or groups of people. Thus, among the newest and most developed threats are those that use cyberterrorism, network-based warfare or attacks using technologies imported from the military such as drones carrying improvised explosive devices. Countermeasures and resilient systems must be prepared against them.

ASPECTS REGARDING THE USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN IMPROVING DEFENSE RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Regarding the society evolution dominated by a high-level technology, we consider this article a constructive approach. The aim of the paper is to highlight a few activities/places/spots in which competences of humans/soldiers interfere with different elements of the artificial intelligence. We deem that the technological progress in the past few years has been impressive. Nowadays, thousands of activities that were mostly or exclusively executed by people can be done faster and often with greater precision using digital systems. In this instance and considering the achievement of functional compatibility between Romanian Army and forces from NATO as being a priority, the development of the technology based on artificial intelligence is vital within the defense resource management.

NEW PERSPECTIVES OF SIMULATION MODELING IN THE OPERATIONAL ART OF MILITARY ACTION PLANNING THROUGH SOFT SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY

The contemporary operational environment is mainly determined by the dynamics of the phenomena occurring within the connections of the societal fields. Decoding the reality and designing military actions have shifted to new coordinates of the operational art, in terms of the way the factors of influence that change the status of each societal field are jointly approached. The term societal has acquired new meanings in the context of the overconnectivity of the fundamental domains of the society which are the following: political/diplomatic, military, economic, social, medical – pandemic, infrastructural, informational, environmental and geo-strategic. The operational art of military action planning is based on decoding the operational environment and includes analyses with different level of detail depending on the approached societal field. The analyses result in different models of action of the opponent that involve organizing and reorganizing the friendly formations that will be planned to take part in operations. Deciding for or against certain options for resolving a (military) crisis situation takes place following repeated simulations until favorable results are obtained. In this article, we aimed to bring to the attention of the specialists in the field of military action planning the integrative methodology of "design thinking" the main aspects related to the impact of the dynamics of the societal domains network in the perspective of the simulated modeling in military action planning.

THE HUMAN FACTOR – RESOURCE AND VULNERABILITY WITHIN THE ADMINISTRATION SECTOR

The public administration represents the subsector of one of the 12 sectors with critical infrastructures in Romania, namely the Administration sector. Its role is to ensure the organization and concrete execution of the law, in order to protect the rights and freedoms of citizens. The efficiency and performance of the public administration is mainly determined by the effectiveness of the civil servant. That is why the human factor is the main resource in the administration sector, being also the most vulnerable element of this sector. The unpredictability of human resources makes measures to reduce the vulnerabilities caused by it (human resources) the most difficult to manage.

MODELING AND SIMULATION IN CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURES PROTECTION

Critical infrastructure protection is a complex field that involves using specific research methods, capturing the dynamic and complex reality in which infrastructure systems evolve. Modeling and simulation provides particular tools and approaches adapted to the field of critical infrastructure protection. A good knowledge of the methodology and using the appropriate tools can lead to improvements in the security of critical infrastructures. Creating models for infrastructures or systems facilitates research, followed by the simulation of potential events with a negative impact. The studies carried out at the intersection of the two fields open new research opportunities to improve the modeling and simulation tools and increase the resilience of critical infrastructures. The specific modeling and simulation methods find their applicability at the operator's or owners' activity for the elaboration of the security plans and their validation.

MILITARY POWER AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN MAINTAINING MILITARY BALANCE IN EASTERN EUROPE

The frequent increasingly challenges, registered in the Eastern European security environment, require an unconventional approach due to the fact that classical typology of conflict has long become history, being replaced by the asymmetric type of conflict. Can European society overcome the new atypical security crises imposed by the military threat of Eastern European origin? Can the balance of military power be maintained so that Western society continues to enjoy security and democracy? These are just two legitimate questions that European states need to have a clear answer to, based on resource allocations in the military operational environment. Moreover, it is clear that security requires investments from a financial point of view and these must be continuous and at the minimum accepted level, like 2% of GDP, at the level of each NATO Member State.

THE ROLE OF TAXES AND FEES IN SECURING THE STATE'S FINANCIAL RESOURCES

In this article, I set out to highlight the importance of the role of taxes and fees in the formation of budget revenues in the context of the situation generated by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and fiscal tactics adopted by European states in 2021 to combat economic imbalances caused by pandemic situation. In these conditions, I believe that the state in a market economy must be present, both in political life and in economic and social life, having as its main role the provision of public goods and services. Moreover, in order for the state to be able to fulfill its functions and attributions regarding satisfy the general requirements of the society, in special conditions, it is necessary to identify the additional finances. The largest share in the state's financial resources is held by mandatory levies, which are made through taxes and fees. Also, I believe that through this article I will make a theoretical basis that allows the development of research topics in the financial and fiscal field, starting from the risks generated in the field by the pandemic situation.