57) Organised terrorism will persist as a serious global security threat of an asymmetric character, supported also by certain authoritarian regimes. Terrorism applies and will continue to apply an indirect strategy, the essence of which is to avoid direct confrontation with states. It will aim its attacks at selected sensitive and unprepared segments of a society, for example mass gatherings of people permitting maximum effect as regards the infliction of losses and influencing the moods of a society, undermining the belief of citizens in the ability of the state to ensure their security. Even the most modern arms and weapon systems are ineffective against such attacks. 58) New terrorist groups that are creating and will continue to create new potential areas of instability are gaining ground on the international scene. Many of them accept the ideology of AL-QAIDA, while others, like the Islamic State are more radical than AL-QAIDA. 59) A rise of different forms of terrorist activity may be expected in the Horn of Africa, Sahel, Maghreb and Levant regions, along with the Persian Gulf states. This rise cannot be excluded from south-east Asia and some areas of the western and south-western Balkans. 60) The threat of terrorism increases exponentially with technological advances. This development may, in the end, create new forms of individual terrorism (for example a genetically engineered plague and computer viruses, lone wolves, individuals returning from conflict areas, migrants). 61) The balance of power between actors (both state and non-state) may be decisively altered by weapons of mass destruction arsenals in their possession and may necessitate a change of military strategy and tactics. The rising number of actors attempting to possess weapons of mass destruction by achieving the technological wherewithal to produce them or simply by buying them is, along with their trafficking, a serious security threat to global security. The threat of misusing readily available biological substances will remain. 62) Future conflicts will probably not be of a large-scale character on a large territory with massive involvement of human and material resources, but of a more local, regional character. 63) The Middle East will continue to be a source of instability. The main destabilising factors will be: territorial disputes, the expansion of terrorism in conjunction with religious extremism, social and economic stagnation and degradation, migration, energy shortfalls, water shortage and resulting food shortages, population growth, spread of conventional and unconventional weapons. The Middle East will continue to be a source of instability 64) In the long-term perspective, it is not possible to dismiss the possibility of subdued military and non-military security threats, localised in current and potential zones of tension in the Eurasian crisis crescent to the South and East of Slovakia, escalating into generated local conflicts of OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC 35