Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

Security, synonymous with stability and development, in its most desirable form ensures certainty of existence, preservation of identity, freedom of affiliation, activity and functioning of individuals and communities, integrity and independence, satisfaction of basic needs, defence against their loss, prosperity and satisfaction. The interpretation adopted for the purposes of the paper refers to several elements that affect national security. It is primarily creating its security by organising society on the basis of power, giving its actions a purposeful character serving to maintain order and stability, and social order. Another element is the creation of certain states of social reality through the policy of the institution of power, which relates to the present, but inevitably leads to the future. The third element is the creation of future, desired social, political and economic phenomena and processes forming the order and the basis for further related activities, based on the policy instrument, which is the national security strategy. The last element is combining all of the previously listed in national security management. Together, these elements create an interpretation of the way of transforming and creating the state’s ability to ensure its security, a necessary condition for its existence and development. The presented study, not exhausting the subject, allows for the formulation of directions for further research, which appear to be important in creating national security.

The energy security of the Visegrad Group countries is a derivative of their energy potential resulting from the lack of strategic natural gas and crude oil resources, limited fuel storage capacity and limited access to the transmission network. This causes a dependence on supplies of raw materials from Russia, which is not even, but applies to each of these countries. The Czech Republic and Slovakia have small deposits of natural gas and crude oil. Hungary and Poland have greater potential, but it is still not enough to achieve energy independence. The energy market of the V4 countries is of interest to the Russian Federation, but it is not a priority for it as it accounts for a small part of Russian transmissions. Russia aims to keep the market for crude oil and natural gas at a uniform level, but the actions of the V4 countries in terms of diversification of supplies, aimed at increasing the level of energy security, effectively hinder the implementation of this goal. The threat to the energy security of the V4 countries is related to their dependence on gas supplies from Gazprom. The terms of the contracts contain unfavorable clauses that negatively affect the sale of surplus Russian gas, as it is necessary to pay fees for the ordered gas regardless of the scale of its use. The differentiation in the energy policy of the Member States is also worth noting. An example is the lack of clear opposition from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia to the plans to expand the Nord Stream and Turkish Stream gas pipelines. These states show interest in participating in projects, which, in fact, constitute the implementation of the Russian concept of building new transmission routes. Poland takes a different position, consistently preventing the implementation of Russian energy projects.

Since its inception, the European Union, as one of the most comprehensive and elaborate models of regional economic integration, has been striving to achieve a high degree of internal cohesion and natural convergence in the level of performance of individual national economies in its Member States as well as to maintain and improve its position as a major player the complex geoeconomics space of a globalized world economy. In order to achieve these key objectives, the European Union has been working since 2000 to implement large EU-wide strategies, one of which is the Europe 2020 strategy currently in place. The present article concentrates on the evaluation of the level of implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy in the conditions of the Slovak Republic in the context of analysis and evaluation of the level of fulfilment of individual objectives in the monitored time series.

Global crises of the end of the XX – beginning of the XXI century have additionally contributed to the search for new market opportunities and made it obvious that on the modern market efforts of one particular company are not enough to do business efficiently. Thus, companies choose a survival strategy in times of growing uncertainty and together with small-scale and medium-scale companies form unified structures which allow competing successfully with large companies. These structures also reveal and enhance their advantages which lie in flexibility and adaptability to the market demands. The article examines basic models of the intercompany networks which meet the requirements of transition to sustainable economic growth in the cross-border region (Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus).

By introducing new international standards into management systems, most enterprises obtain recognition by the market participants relative to different aspects of their activity. At the same time, problems with the enterprise units management arise rather often. The primary intent of this research is identifying the technical approaches aimed at creating an integrated Quality Management System (QMS) for the food enterprise, which reflects the branch specificity and is based on international standards ISO 9000 and HACCP principles. The paper presents the possible benefits for the food industry originating by the introduction of an integrated QMS based on the analysis carried-out analysis on modern QMS trends. Additionally we present the generalized results of the researches conducted on the “Process model of Raimbek Agro Company”. Finally, a technique for the assessment of productivity and continuous improvement of QMS is developed. Originality/value: the developed technique for productivity assessment and continuous improvement of QMS allows to establish causal relationships between planned and reached results, thus highlighting the effects. The introduction of an Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS) will enable the enterprise to meet the present-day market requirements and to ensure the competitive goods production.

The development of human resources is an important condition for ensuring the sustainability of the society and the development of the national economy. Knowledge is becoming more and more one of the basic factors for society sustainability and development. In the 21st century economy, which is based on knowledge, the innovation becomes one of the major factors to increase the competitiveness. It is confirmed by the experience of leading economic systems when investing considerable resources in the society educating. It is especially important for the Baltic States in the context of the creation of the knowledge based society declared in the EU space. Thus one of the basic aims of the Latvian economy policy is to create efficient, competitive and sustainable economy. One of the basic priorities of an up-to-date state development strategy is a modern education and science system as the education level and the development of human capital are the most important indicators that are creating the competitiveness and sustainability of the country. In the article there are considered the global tendencies of the higher education; also the connection of education with innovation and sustainability are analysed. The aim of this study is to focus on sustainable competitiveness concept and provide in-depth understanding of higher education impact on ensuring sustainable competitiveness on national level. In the research there are used primarily quantitative comparative research methods. Quantitative indicators are used to characterize specific features of the higher education impact on economics in the Baltics and Nordics. For the calculations, methodology and definitions the OECD methodology and World Economic Forum, global competitiveness concept is used.

The aim of this article is to analyse the essence of the harmonisation of public and private interests in the public service. The necessity of the harmonisation of public and private interests in the public service is based on the following features: civil service reliability and implementation of its purpose in order to guarantee the public interest; clear, binding standards of conduct applicable to all persons employed in the public service, regardless of their duties and career development nature; aim to prevent the emergence and spread of corruption in the public service; constitutional requirements for the implementation of public service. The article reveals that there are two key elements of a conflict of interest: 1) official duties that ensure the implementation of a public interest; 2) private interest which may negatively affect the performance of official duties. It follows that if a conflict of interest in the public service is not resolved or addressed properly, sooner or later it turns into corruption, and cause significant damage to the state itself. It is therefore very important timely identification, removal and management of the conflict of interest.

The aim of the presented paper is to examine how technology transfer is being approached in the latest scientific literature, and whether interrelations of technology transfer and sustainable development are being elaborated. Clusters in this context are perceived as networks (not necessarily proximate in geographic terms), which serve as technology transmittors. Efficiency of clusters is being addressed. The ultimate aim of the research is to develop framework, which would allow proceeding analysis of links between technology transfer phenomenon and sustainable development process.

Considering lack of benchmarking and observation data, the article analyses issues of technology transfer in Lithuania. Comparison of Lithuanian innovation performance with EU country members is given as well as foreign direct investments in last period. While analysing main technology transfer networks, article explains what problems Lithuanian clusters meet in each model. The main conclusion is that Lithuanian clusters lack experience and investments, also Lithuanian enterprises are mainly small and may not be interested to invest in the development and adoption of technology.

The goal of this research is to formulate the notion of sustainable dispute resolution and distinguish main characteristics of those dispute resolution procedures that can be considered to be sustainable having an idea of bringing together sustainability, law and dispute resolution. Thus the object of the research – dispute resolution procedures, their main features and capability to be qualified as sustainable. The research is composed of introduction, two parts and conclusions. Introduction provides a brief overview of the object of that research and its goal, part one describes main criteria for distinguishing the sustainable dispute resolution, in part two analysis of sustainability in main dispute resolution processes (negotiation, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and litigation) is presented. Conclusion gives main ideas of the assignment of that work in brief.