CHAPTER 2 The External Security Environment of the Slovak Republic 42) The framework of the global security environment is undergoing dynamic change and will continue to be characterised by geopolitical and geo-economical changes, along with new asymmetries in power and wealth distribution. 43) The security environment of the Slovak Republic is and will continue to be greatly influenced (positively and negatively) primarily by globalisation and its accompanying changes in the international state of affairs. The perpetuation of open globalisation processes will remain as one of the sources of serious security problems in geopolitical, geo-economical, ecological, raw material and social matters. In the long-term they may have an unpredictable, synergic and cumulative effect. They will continue to go hand in hand with conflicts, crises and new hotbeds of tension. 44) Unconventional domains and spaces (informational, electromagnetic, cybernetic, cosmic and nano-technological) will be drawn towards the centre of gravity of military activities, depending on the speed of technological advance of specific security actors. Cyberspace has become a new operational domain of conducting combat activity. An attack carried out in cyberspace may escalate to the extent of invoking Art 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and may lead to collective defence, or rather a coordinated response of NATO member states. Tying into this is the fact that the development of weapon systems for unconventional domains and spaces is not at present fully limited by the existing system of political and legal arrangements in the area of arms control, which poses a serious security problem. A partial return to developing the combat potential of modern, technologically sophisticated armed forces of a conventional type 32 45) In the case of some actors, the possibility of partially returning to developing the combat potential of modern, technologically sophisticated armed forces of a conventional type in the mid-term is likely (this concerns primarily hardware for the ground forces, the Special Operations Forces, precision weapon systems, hypersonic weapon systems, missiles with horizontal flight, means of electronic warfare, cybernetic weapons and missile defence assets). Also, one of the leading trends in combat activity is the utilisation of unmanned aerial vehicles and electronic warfare assets. WHITE PAPER ON DEFENCE