Foreword by the Minister of Defence of the Slovak Republic In response to the worsening situation in the area of national defence the Slovak Government released a document named White Paper on Defence of the Slovak Republic in 2013 as the main politico-strategic product of the Strategic Defence Review. For the first time in a long while, this document projected the long-term development of ensuring national defence up to the year 2024. Life brings change, however, and to a greater or lesser degree this change can influence our intentions and their materialisation. This document is a case in point. Developments in Ukraine in 2014 presented a fundamental change in the security environment in Europe, which steadily grew worse after the destabilisation of the Greater Middle East and a concomitant growth of security risks for the Slovak Republic and her Allies. The era of a stable security environment with low risks in the external environment, considered as a matter of course by some, is over. Security threats have become more real and directly influence the security interests of the Slovak Republic. Measures undertaken in reaction to this not only in Slovakia but also at the level of NATO and the EU have not undermined the validity of the key tenets of the White Paper on Defence of the Slovak Republic from 2013. They did influence its implementation, however, especially in the area of armament. Steps taken in the past were enough to halt the decline of our armed forces but not enough to overcome all serious shortfalls. This called for a review of the current situation and the need to determine the right course of further national defence development until 2030, while taking into account not only probable developments in the security environment, but the resources available as well. The result of this review is the new White Paper on Defence of the Slovak Republic. The clear and urgent imperative of this document is the need to strengthen the ability of the Slovak Republic, in all its complexities, to defend itself, especially focusing on increasing the readiness and warfighting ability of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic. The White Paper on Defence of the Slovak Republic stresses the fact that the Slovak Republic is primarily responsible for its own defence. It highlights the need to prepare for all scenarios, not excluding the most dire of scenarios in the form of a direct attack on the Slovak Republic. This calls for developing the individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack. The document in front of you contains a set of measures pertaining to key areas of ensuring national defence. These take into account tasks resulting from the common efforts in NATO, especially measures strengthening collective defence. Improving national defence management, especially in war-time, is a key measure requiring improvements in intelligence, decision-making processes, planning, preparing state authorities for national defence and other areas. Increasing readiness and the war-fighting ability of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic is built on two key areas of their transformation. First, human resources are the most 6 WHITE PAPER ON DEFENCE