Changes in international security and political environment of contemporary states as well as internal changes in their societies have brought about a number of changes within European armed forces. Of these, perhaps the most important is their changed functionality. Unlike during the Cold War when the defence of national territory was the main role and mission of the armed forces, today armed forces are preoccupied with other missions like coping with asymmetric threats and terrorism, peace support operations and humanitarian assistance, defence diplomacy, domestic military assistance and internal security. This is not to say that the defence of national territory mission has became obsolete or irrelevant, nor that other missions were not there in the past: it is more a matter of prioritisation of different missions and the intensity of performing them.