Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

Advanced studies on artificial intelligence increase the concerns of many non-governmental organizations regarding the possibility of their use in combat systems. Even now, there are many weapon systems that can interact with the enemy in an automated manner. However, the concerns are raised due to the potential emergence of autonomous combat systems, which will independently make decisions about life or death on the battlefield, both in relation to military personnel and civilians. This article provides a review of terminological issues associated with the concept of automation and autonomy in the context of combat systems. It was concluded that the absence of a commonly accepted definition of “lethal autonomous weapon system” within international law contributes to many interpretations in this field. On the basis of source literature, the second part of this article presents current proposals aimed at a preventive ban on the design and use of lethal autonomous weapons systems. The essential deduction leads to the conclusion that introduction of a total ban on the design and use of this type of weapon systems is impossible, nevertheless as much as possible should be done in order to make sure that the critical decisions, especially those about life and death, will remain in the scope of human control and that they will not be made by the machines.

National finance sustainability is likely an essential issue for the country’s development. These aggregated perceptions change the nation’s public sector and the security of citizens’ lives. Therefore, a significant focus on the broad improvement of finance studies could be an essential issue. Besides, that activity could be organized in connection with the applicable higher education programs. On the other hand, the government’s finance management understanding is treated differently in various countries. That is becoming increasingly essential condition that such a discussion does not directly benefit the common development of financial education in recent years. One of the possible ways to deal with personal finances in different economic conditions could be changing attitudes to finance knowledge among top management in universities. The young people could be supported by financial education programs that are clearly incorporated into their underground or postgraduate courses. The correct management of these programs helps to improve student learning experience and the economic well-being. Moreover, the learning based on the transparent public administration believably educate patriots of the country and the peoples’ intolerance to non-transparent activities of public servants. The other important task of the paper is to reveal how public debt and public spending management could influence the issues of fiscal policy sustainability. In addition, this paper also tries to clarify questions about economic importance on financial education in the all levels of studies. Furthermore, the theoretical task of the paper is to show the size of the government debt, government debt service and expenditure in Lithuania and Latvia, during the last crisis in the first decade of the twenty first century. Then the overpaid debt services can be given to the hypothesis that an ordinary individual has less than EU average standard of financial and/or economical education. This conceptualization of the tax burden can encourage each citizen of the country to be responsible for the public servants’ activity and for the transparency of a budget planning process. The public revenue improvement is a really challenging procedure. Since using the same concept of taxes as fixed costs for public sector when person directly received nothing, but additional payments for the majority of public sector services. Therefore, confusion of terms is fairly constant, which once again shows the need for public finances literacy in the all areas of study programs for scholars. An authorized Lithuania’s tax burden usually comprises more than thirty percent from the country’s nominal gross domestic product in recent years. Nevertheless, political leaders and experts are suggesting the necessity of increasing Lithuania’s accumulated tax burden. However, there may be a fundamental mistake that social insurance contributions and compulsory health insurance contributions to the funds are not calculated into private individuals and legal entities tax burden. Fortunately the last year’s budget already considers social payments as a part of tax revenues. Unfortunately there are diminutive amount of signs in the continuity of Lithuania’s fiscal policy in the twenty first century.

Drugs and prison – this consistent pattern is often undeniable. It is undeniable that most of those people who end up in prison, have used narcotic or psychotropic substances before. The use of substances that causes addiction and the development of addiction is influenced by a number of different factors; in some cases, by the imprisonment itself. The authors of the article offer, continuing with scientific publication cycle, which is dedicated to execution of sentence of imprisonment in Latvia and security aspects of the places of confinement, to become familiar with the study about peculiarities of execution of the sentence of imprisonment and security aspects at the newly established Center for drug addicts of Olaine city prison, where convicted persons, during the serving of a sentence, are involved in addiction reduction programs. The aim of the execution of the sentence of imprisonment is to effectively apply all conditions of the sentence execution in respect of the convicted person, thus ensuring re-socialization of a person and the legal behavior of a person after execution of the sentence. However, it is undeniable that only those persons, who are free from narcotic or psychotropic substances addiction can be re-socialized; therefore, the study obtains the status of vitally important topicality. This article reflects the results of the conducted study about peculiarities of execution of the sentence of imprisonment at the Center for drug addicts of Olaine city prison. The article identifies issues and suggests possible solutions. Based on the study there has been developed a series of recommendations for the staff of the places of confinement working with convicted drug addicts. The authors suggest that the drawbacks and issues discovered within the framework of this study, as well as proposed solutions, will make a significant contribution to the development of the penalty execution theory in Latvia. It will be possible to improve the sentence of imprisonment execution legal framework and practice by using new scientific cognitions stated in this study.

This study examines and compares the attitude of management students in Croatia and Slovakia towards whistleblowing in a sample of 121 master students of business ethics at the Faculty of Economics University in Split, Croatia, and 169 master students from University of Bratislava, Slovakia. The three measurement instruments include whistleblowers’ attitudes (3 items), whistleblowing attitudes (2 items) and potential types of whistleblowing reactions (8 items), i.e. external reactions (4 items) and internal reactions (4 items). The results of the study indicated a positive attitude toward whistleblowing and whistleblowers in both student groups. It is also found that Croatian students exhibited more positive attitude towards whistleblowers than Slovakian students. Also, Croatian students showed more proneness to react in a whistleblowing situation – both inside the organization and externally via media. These conclusions suggest that the sense of moral duty to blow the whistle, as well as less fear of the potential consequences, is stronger in Croatian students. The results may be of practical use to managers who can benefit from whistleblowing while keeping in mind that whistleblowing can’t be avoided and that punishing whistleblowers seems to be a bad managerial practice.

Tackling climate change requires collective, cross-borders actions and local solutions for mitigation measures. Variety of actors are involved in climate change adaptation and mitigation, ranging from local communities to the global supranational institutions. People tend to perceive individual action as failing to cope with climate change (e.g. outlined in Lorenzoni and Pidgeon, 2006) and therefore ascribe high responsibility to the institutional level. This article will analyze how the public in Baltic – Nordic countries perceive the institutional responsibilities in climate change adaptation and mitigation. This article is based on data of Special Eurobarometer (459), conducted in 2017 and the questions analyzed in this article are related to concerns about climate change and the perception of institutional responsibilities in tackling climate change (institutions: national governments, European Union, business and industry, regional and local authorities; and environmental groups). The local, national and global institutions are perceived as having different responsibilities and impacts in tackling climate change. Also, the perceptions of institutional and individual responsibility varies across the countries. Results indicate that climate change is perceived as one of the top three most serious global issues in Baltic – Nordic countries as well as the concern about climate change in those countries is increasing. Regarding public perceptions of institutional responsibility related to climate change risks, most people in EU member states indicate national governments as having highest responsibility. However, there are significant differences comparing the perception of public in Nordic and Baltic States.

The internet space is the most important and affluent source of climate change related information. Hoverer information content are not always satisfying and threat of fake news and disinformation are very realistic. The analysis included top10 search results of four phrases (Climate change, Global warming, Adaptation to climate change and Climate change policy) using Google search engine. The phrases were searched in 11 Baltic Sea Region (BSR) languages and in the Ukrainian and English languages. The results revealed that climate change disinformation and misinterpretation exists on the internet. Mostly it displayed in indirect forms such as old information, existence of junksites, advertisements, unequal share by main actors (government, mass media, etc.). Moreover, on Eastern BSR languages, internet search results of climate change information are less convenient comparing to western BSR languages. The usage of multilanguage approach in Wikipedia pages could be one of the freshest and most reliable sources of information about climate change.

A profound transformation of modern culture in line with increasing individualism and self-interest have been observed in the last few decades. While competing for limited resources, public organizations have to tackle the issues of lower commitment and turnover of employees. A recent shift of Lithuania’s defence policy revealed the issues, related to the attraction and retention of qualified personnel. It appears that organizations have to fulfil the demand for loyal and committed personnel and to deal with increasing individualism and self-interest. Thus, the research aims to investigate if and how values congruence of defence organization is interrelated to intentions of personnel to continue and organizational commitment. Theoretical discussion, related to person and organization fit, vlues congruence and organizational commitment, let to develop a questionnaire. The analysis is grounded on the survey of personnel deployed in one unit of defence organization. The final sample comprised 56 respondents. The results confirm the assumption that higher affective commitment increases intentions to stay with organization. In addition, the conclusion that personnel demonstrate identification with organization can be made. Second, the study demonstrates that physical values congruence is positively interrelated with affective commitment. Hence, the sense of favourable social guarantees, benefits, appropriate work place and health consideretaions influence individual’s identification with organization. The implications for top-level management lie in the possibility to monitor values congruence and subsequently, increase organizational commitment of staff.

This paper tackles the asymmetry of economic interests and geopolitics between developed and developing countries. Currently, the geopolitics presupposes that the majority of novel technologies are devised and designed in developed countries with their subsequent transfer to the developing countries. Moreover, in the context of the global crisis, the issue of de-dollarization is relevant from the political and economic points of view. Our specific focus is on the small oil countries and the issue how to get off the oil needle in the painless way. Furthermore, the paper analyzes the rise of cryptocurrency that is envisaged as the substitute of the U.S. dollar which has been the world most dominating currency for the last several decades.

Sustainable and secure development of any country is considerably affected by energy efficiency of economy. Efforts directed to diminishing of energy resources consumed have to be directed to achieving multiple goals, ultimately impacting demand in energy resources. Hence, ultimate demand of energy resources depend on economic growth rates, economy structure, technological level, distribution of income and behavioral patterns, both of business companies and households. This paper is devoted to analysis of energy efficiency in transport sector of three secected European countries. The methodology of research is based on comparison on long-term tendencies of energy intensity in transport equipment segment. The long-term forecasting untill year 2050 will be performed by using LEAP (the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning system) software; ceteris paribus assumption will be selected. The countries selected for analysis are: Belgium, Bulgaria and Lithuania. The selected countries, we assume, would represent better developed Europea countries (represented by e.g. Belgium), and comparitively less developed European countries of different size (represented by Bulgaria and Lithuania). The juxatopsing of energy intensity change in long run, revealing mode of this change and comparison of cases of selected countries, would allow to reveal if energy efficiency of transport equipment converge. Since trnasport equipment sector embraces various modes of transport, additionally public roads sector will be tackled. We believe, that results obtained will signal what policy implications, if any, are necessary in order to direct transport users towards stewardship of energy resources through increase of efficiency of conventional energy resources and transfer to renewables in the nearest future.

Rural areas are particularly important for ensuring sustainability and smart development of a state as a whole. The present study reflects the quantitative and qualitative assessment of smart growth challenges in the region of Latgale (Latvia) at the level of 19 districts. Worked out within the framework of the Latvian National Research Programme EKOSOC-LV, the present study focuses on smart growth as a tool for risk prevention and the use of opportunities in regional development within the framework of the concept of smart specialization. The research aim is to estimate the risk factors that influence the formation of a smart territory and to analyse the interrelationship of quantitative indicators and expert opinions. By analysing the theoretical principles, the regional actors’ recommendations, taking into account the research group participants’ and regional experts’ findings, the authors characterize the processes and the risks of smart development, as well as make assumptions about the development of the desired situation. The significant risk in the development of Latgale region is the decline in its population. At the same time, the results of the research show that the population is the most important cornerstone of smart growth of the rural territories in Latgale region. Both the objective data processing (statistical analysis) and the subjective point of view (the results of the expert survey) highlight a number of significant risk factors for promoting smart regional space and the growth of knowledge-based economy: the insufficient development of the population’s economic activity particularly in the knowledge-based segment, and the small population size. The assessment of various challenges and risks in the regional development of Latvia, as well as the integrated application of quantitative and qualitative approaches allows for the elaboration of a comprehensive vision of the smart growth processes in Latgale region of Latvia. The quantitative assessment is based on the establishment and testing of the integrated index (Smart Development Index). The qualitative assessment is based on the regional experts’ opinions summarized by using the Analytic Hierarchy Process methodology. The research results have both scientific and practical applicability in promoting smart development in rural areas. First of all, the results of the study offer a possible methodological solution for the assessment of smart development. Secondly, the obtained scientific experience can be used for solving practical problems at the level of the districts of Latgale region.