Summary

One of the most burning issues these days is the coexistence of various civilizations in the context of globalisation, where tensions can be seen to mount between different values and fundamental orders. The West (western world) faces serious problems because the fight against foreign ideas and cultural code is in fact a fight for one’s identity and preservation. New forms of criminal conduct and hostile acts undermine the earlier ways of warfare and deviating careers known in the western Christian civilization, which in turn hinders the identification of effective countermeasures. Such fight inevitably requires new methods, strategies, tactics and new professionals so as to enable the West to continue to benefit from its progress in technology, research and ‘soft power’.

This article examines the international security situation, proceeding from the cultural approach to civilizations. It firstly presents the main ideas of the cultural approach to civilizations. Secondly, the article analyses the links between fundamentalist terrorism and the value conflict as well as pinpoints the similarities of such criminal activity with the fourth generation warfare. Thirdly, it sets a hypothesis that the fourth period has been added to the three periods of crime control, while there are principal differences with the earlier periods. To sum it up, the article proposes a framework for a new model of conduct control.