Challenges to national defence in contemporary geopolitical situation

The article shows that global climate changes are already visible in Ukraine. At the same time the climatic consequences that Ukraine will face will not be so critical for population incubation, as, for example, in Africa and East Asia. In these regions, the catastrophic decline in drinking water and fertile land will stimulate migration to new territories for survival. Climate refugees, according to the authors, will become one of the main challenges to the national and food security of Ukraine and the European region.

Changes in the state governance in Russia continues. The reasons why those changes are made could be found in “Russian Doctrine” an academic work of Russian right wing academia, which recommends establishing in Russia a new type of empire - a network based hierarchical governing system. Without publicly announcing the Doctrine as own ideological doctrine V. Putin uses it as a guidance. While restoring Russia as a global power he sees this type of governance as the best condition to maintain his own status as well. With V. Putin coming from the military organization which appreciates efficiency achieved though centralised management, synchronized activities and application of technologies, the changes are achieved by applying same principles in political statements and official documents and implemented in structural changes and applications of technologies.

The aim of the scientific article is to reveal motives and features of using private military companies in Russian Federation foreign and security policy in 2014-2019. In order to do so, qualitative research method is applied, using case analysis method. From the analysis of the motives for the use of private military companies and conventional forces, it can be said that they are similar, as the use of both military structures allows to achieve more or less the same interests. However, it was observed that in terms of the specifics of the forces and the diversity scheme of social deviations, private military and security companies are more similar to regular forces. Nevertheless, both types of private companies help Russia avoid direct liability for various violations of the law. Considering the case of Russia analyzed in the study, the factors explained in the microtheory are adjusted, supplemented and interrelated. The analysis found that not all regions that are far from Russia are financially beneficial, but strategically, all give Russia an advantage over the United States.

The paper has investigated the patterns of defence expenditure in the Baltic countries, such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia during the period of 2004-2018. Distribution of defence expenditure by main category has been analysed and the main tendencies have been provided. The author has done this by applying total expenditure and decomposition approaches. Firstly, the author has calculated the intensity rate of defence expenditure‘s structural changes in order to assess which country’s defence spending structure has been more dynamic over the period analysed. Secondly, Finger-Kreinin indicator has been used to compare defence expenditure distributions and determine their dissimilarities among the countries under consideration. The author believes that the research highlights key structural trends of defence expenditure and could be helpful for policy makers.

Purpose – the article provides part of the broader research in the area of management systems standards and management systems certification. In the paper we analyse the evolution of management system standards after implementation of High-Level Structure (Annex SL) on the example of the most popular management standard ISO 9001: 2015 with the comparison to ISO 14001:2015. To understand the evolution and predict the future of certification we examine more deeply the behaviour of individual standard worldwide and on the particular markets.

Over the past two decades the number of Internet users around the world has incredibly increased. E-commerce is becoming a potential area for business development creating significant added value for the global economy. This increases competition between e-commerce platforms and makes it difficult to survive. The purpose of this article is to create a conceptual model for the success of e-commerce by identifying the factors that determine the involvement of different generations in the international e-commerce activities. An analysis of the scientific literature was carried out to identify the factors. The assessment of existing success factors and success models has identified weaknesses and shaped the model of e-commerce success, which includes the generational divide as a factor that determines the choice of the consumer.

The paper provides an assessment of Poland’s efforts to address security threats over the last decade. The analysis is limited to energy security, environment protection, cybersecurity and information threats. Governmental strategies, policies and plans are confronted with the assessments of the Supreme Audit Office, academia and think tanks. The paper identifies common challenges related to development and implementation of the state’s response to traditional and emerging threats. It also discusses observed trade-offs and consequences of both actions and hesitance to act.

The Voluntary National Defense Service (VNDS) of Lithuania was established in 17 January 1991 and began to operate in a difficult political and economic situation in the presence of Russian military forces deployed in Lithuania. The VNDS was tasked with ensuring the security of important state and economic entities, assisting the police in maintaining public order and territorial defense, as well as carrying out intelligence tasks throughout Lithuania. The main aim of the paper is to analyze the creation of military intelligence by the VNDS and the tasks they conducted from 1991 to 1993. Various methods were used to analyze the VNDS: case study, historical analysis, comparative historical, document analysis, data analysis and statistical content analysis. The paper establishes that the VNDS intelligence gathering structure and its development was influenced by the intelligence tasks assigned to the VNDS. The case study also reveals that the main function of the VNDS staff consisted of intelligence information gathering. In 1991, according to the VNDS standby logs analyzed in this study, 56 percent of information registered by the VNDS staff consisted of intelligence information and this information was gathered across 82 percent of Lithuanian districts. According to the data gathered in this study, it was proven that the VNDS was conducting military intelligence from 1991 to 1993. The case study is even more relevant since the current day Lithuanian Armed Forces are returning to the national territorial defense model due to the changes in current geopolitical situation. In the future, the role of the National Defense Volunteer Force (the NDVF), equivalent to the previous VNDS, will increase significantly, as the Commander of the Lithuanian Armed Forces has appointed these forces to carry out intelligence tasks for military operations.

Using of 3D printed spare parts for Navy supply supported by mentioned inspection meets the requirement for enhancing the logistic performance by provide to military end-users possibilities to produce spare parts using additive manufacturing solutions, particularly in the context of overseas operations, that can be easily presented with several examples. But with application of additive manufacturing in naval operations to product different objects in a variety of materials in an open water environment, we need to start with development of innovative solutions for intelligent inspection of products of selective laser melting from metallic powders is a topic of great importance in nowadays if we talk about real strategies in logistic support including overseas naval outposts support equipment and the reverse engineering of obsolescent parts such as many of those that could be found on the perspective sea platforms with particular focus on maritime littoral and high sea areas—demonstrate advantages of additive manufacturing.

Increasing emigration leads to the loss of investments in human capital as well as to the constraint of the knowledge economy via a huge leakage of demographical and intellectual capacity, hence threatening national security, social and economic stability. The target of the article is to examine the Lithuanian emigrants’ attitudes toward national security by analysing the relationship between emigration and national security, by disclosing the reasons for emigration, and by investigating the emigrants’ stance on national security. Long-term emigration lasting longer than a year has a greater impact on the country since most of long-term emigrants do not return. This is confirmed by the data revealing that most of emigrants live abroad for ten years or longer. Short-term (for less than a year) emigration can be qualified as a search for temporary financial improvement. It becomes evident amid financial crisis during which the loss of job opportunities and emigration leads to an increase in search for personal income and new experience abroad. Ninety four percent of participants of this research identify themselves as long-term emigrants, and 76% of them have a higher education. It points to the loss of educational investment and qualified labour force. The research reveals that most of survey respondents do not expect to return, for they do not trust the authorities. In addition, they deem that it is not reasonable to increase funding for the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The results of the study allow conclusions to be drawn that emigration is a real threat to Lithuania’s national security.