Werther-Pietsch, Ursula. 2022. Transforming Security: A New Balance-of-Power Doctrine (Global Power Shift Series). Springer, Cham. XXII, 180 pp. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87097-3

The modern system of international security and the doctrine of the balance of power is going through a difficult period of exacerbation of geopolitical contradictions associated with a new redistribution of zones of influence. As a result of these processes, a significant increase in instability is observed in many regions, which actualizes the problem of the military security of states. Despite the global transformations of the world system, the potential of military force is still considered one of the most effective factors in world politics. 
The emergence of new technologies of confrontation, the expansion of the range of possibilities for destructive influence through peaceful means, primarily of an informational nature, require revision and modernization of the UN security system. It is necessary to take measures to counter threats of an information nature, the object of which is both military infrastructure and public consciousness. In connection with the emergence of a new information reality, the study of the specifics of the military security system of modern countries is of great civilized significance. 
Since 2014, the UN structure and collective security have faced serious geopolitical challenges and threats due to the revival of its key role in the system of international relations, its desire to restore the international law of peace and security. Obviously, in the conditions of the new reality in modern wars, preference is given to both military and non-military technologies, the parallel use of which has a powerful destructive potential for communicative and informational impact on public consciousness, carried out with the help of cyberspace, social networks, the media and the Internet. Because of this, geopolitical actors today prefer hybrid methods of war, as well as the widespread use of information technology capabilities to inflict damage on the enemy. In this context, the totality of modern geopolitical challenges and threats in the new information reality can be characterized as a hybrid war, which includes a wide range of actions aimed at destroying all spheres of the rival country’s social life.