DOI: 10.33917/es-1.193.2024.126-131

The author examines the main activities of the State Defenсe Council (SDC) of the Russian Empire to ensure the defenсe potential at the beginning of the XXth century, in particular elaboration of a general plan for the state defence in accordance with requirements of that time and development of the provisions of the state military doctrine, which was accompanied by a major scientific discussion. Based on a large number of archival documents and materials, the stages of decision-making by the SDC and implementation of major measures to strengthen the defence capability of the empire are revealed. The author traces the ways of solving a very difficult task – strengthening military potential of the state in difficult conditions on the eve of the First World War.

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Ideological and theoretical justification of violence and its extreme form — the war — has a solid philosophical and political base. Nevertheless, this question becomes especially acute nowadays. Not least due to the fact that a substantial segment of the confrontation is shifting into the sphere of ideological and political warfare — war of meanings aimed at suppressing the enemy’s will to resist. Wars of the so-called fourth generation are asymmetric and hybrid ones, wars of “everybody against everyone”, in conditions of losing monopoly on violence by state institutions and increasing the power of non-state and mixed (public-private) paramilitary systems will require re-interpretation of the concepts of justice and war sacredness.