Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

Present world has no clear balance between economic and political forces. Conflict initiators use all possible sanctions and unconventional means and ways and have no clear and permanent structure and allies. Traditional leadership and actions in conflict zones are not effective. Complex dynamic systems (CDS) paradigm allows understanding better the essence of chaotic processes in conflict zones and acting efficiently.

Consequently, as a result of implemented criminal policy liberalization in the last few years the number of convicts in Latvia has fallen sharply. Despite the fact that the range of the criminal punishment applied for adults and minors does not have a significant difference, the sharp decline in proportion of imprisonment can be explained by compulsory education measures and by forced labor, which are broadly used as criminal punishment in legal procedure of convicted minors. After conducting the analysis of criminal offences committed by minors, it can be concluded that the large amount of these criminal offences are property-related criminal offences, i.e. theft and robbery. However, the amount of violent criminal offences committed by minors, which are directed against human life and health, i.e. infliction of great bodily injuries, smurders, etc., increases with every year. The analysis of the components of crime of the criminal offenses committed by minors shows that the criminal offenses committed by minors are becoming more aggressive, more brutal and better planed, which are often directly or indirectly related to alcohol, psychotropic or narcotic substance abuse or domestic violence. This article identifies and analyses the results of the conducted study on peculiarities of execution of the sentence of imprisonment in respect of convicted minors in Latvia. This study examines the peculiarities of execution of the sentence of imprisonment in respect of convicted minors, identifies specific issues and suggests possible solutions. International standards provide that minor prisoners while being in a closed prison environment are defenseless and are at particular risk; therefore, the study obtains the status of vitally important topicality. Based on the study there has been developed a series of recommendations for the staff (of places of confinement) working with minor prisoners, as well as pointed out the necessity to make amendments to the norms of The Sentence Execution Code of Latvia.

Considering the rapid change of work and life as well as the increasing requirements of professional competences for personnel, this article, based on scientific literature, examines the concept competence and its component parts. Through an integrated multi criteria approach, the authors of this work assessed competences and their deciding factors of the naval officers of the Lithuanian Navy and, respectively, developed a complex assessment model. On the basis of the model development principles, competences and their component parts of any other profession can also be assessed. According to the results, the authors proposed adapted competence building measures for a specific vessel that would develop missing skills and increase officers’ work optimization in the existing work environment.

The aim of the article is to present and examine a unique role of social media in correlation with contemporary secure and sustainable development path by observing social and political processes, which in several instances led to a violent conflicts and crisis. Fundamental task of the article as well as its research goal is to give an answer to two questions – does the social media can be used to trigger revolutions and how military powerful entities as NATO and US are prepared to utilize the social media as a part of military efforts. First part of the article is focused on scientific approaches towards secure and sustainable development, followed by NATO’s and US military doctrinal approach to the use of the social media. After review of interrelationships between security and sustainable development, that part of the article covers such documents as NATO Military Concept for NATO Strategic Communication (2010), NATO Strasbourg-Khel Summit Declaration (2009), NATO Strategic Communication Policy (2009), US Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (2009), US Commander’s Handbook for Strategic Communication and Communication Strategy (2010) and revised US Capstone Concept for Joint (2012). The second part of the article is focused mainly on presentation of the usage of the social media in selected conflicts which took place in Lebanon, Kuwait, Kenya, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Nigeria and another accord in long-lasting war between Israel and Hamas (so called operation Pillars of Defense). The article is concluded with final remarks addressing role of social media in processes of secure sustainable development of considered countries.

The United States of America and the United Kingdom with the assistance of other NATO and non-NATO states initiated an international counter terrorism campaign the War on Terror (also known as the Global War on Terror (GWOT)). However, after more than ten years the War on Terror is still in the active stage. The pivotal issue regarding counter-terrorism actions in Afghanistan, considering how much money and energy spent on them, is whether such actions are effective or not. Dynamic system simulation approach was used to investigate interactions between counter-terrorism strategies used in Afghanistan (in the context of coalition strength) and the effectiveness of these strategies (in the context of terrorist strength). Data form different sources over a ten-year-period was used for analysis (2000–2010). It was found dynamic relation between recruitment rate of terrorist and coalition manpower that depends on time adjustments. However, further research is needed to get more precise results in finding causal loops in counter-terrorism system, thus this study should be evaluated only as a framework in further similar researches.

Presented paper suggests an instrumental approach to soft security and aims to reveal capacity of soft security instruments in terms of contribution to both security and sustainable development in the region which is addressed by Eastern Dimension of European Neighbourhood Policy and which includes Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Russian Federation (which is neither part of EaP nor among 16 EU partners addressed by the European Neighbourhood Policy) is also included in the overview as an important factor of influence in respect of regional security and relations between EaP states and EU. Referring to the main ideas of researchers and policy makers using different approaches to soft security as a phenomenon, the authors of the paper define soft security instruments as purposely organised social practices which rely mainly on sharing, congruence and development of values and competences of initiators and participants of security governance. Focus on the effectiveness of sharing, congruence and development of values and competences of initiators and participants of the EU policies and related joint projects as well as relevant combinations of soft instruments with economic and normative hard means is seen as a possibility to gradually increase level of regional security and transfer elements leading to sustainable development in this region.

The article highlights the importance of the development of the society, as well as the measurement of this development, in the context of security, sustainability and competitiveness and goes much further by guiding to further research focus on the introduced new conception of “Secure and sustainable competitiveness” in the context of globalisation. The definition of “Sustainable competitiveness” was broadened by including new aspect of security. The development of the society was introduced as common output of the globalization which goes hand-in-hand with competitiveness, sustainability and security. The interrelation of certain facets between security, competitiveness and sustainability lead to the proposal to create the new index of “Secure and sustainable competitiveness” with possibility to evaluate the progress by looking back and provide prospects by looking forward. The research findings are in line with policy context and the development of the new index of “Secure and sustainable competitiveness” could be an important research contribution to the European Union Strategy Europe 2020 for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (2010).

Security and sustainability conception analysis is being provided in the paper. The conceptions of security and sustainability have been selected due to their significance for contemporary globalized world’s issues. Initially, the perceptions encompassing even ancient times are being elaborated. Onward, with an intention to get a more sophisticated view of above mentioned expressions, relevant scientific literature has been critically reviewed accentuating to the dimensions of those two phenomena. The following common dimensions could be proposed: social, economic, environmental. The implication could be stated - security conception provides not only those three dimensions some other important dimensions could be distinguished as well. One more important finding composes the perception of dimensions interactions to analyzed conceptions. Some important implications are being provided in the paper, which elevate the significance of security to sustainability for today’s globalized society - security can be proposed as expression with ponderable value, while sustainability gains this power only with “sustainable development” phenomenon.

The world faces new challenges and threats to international security environment, among which a key role play different types of cyberthreats. This follows, primarily the global links in a cyberspace in terms of critical infrastructure of the state’s and intergovernment’s objects in the international security environment and the fact that the cyberaggressor’s tools are becoming cheaper, and their skills are more and more advanced. There is an urgent need for the analysis of present and future cyberthreats in the security environment, to understand their impact on everone, States, Nations and organizations and develop effective methods of response in this highly complex reality. The article presents the concept of defining of main types of cyberhreats (i.e. information warfare, cyberterrorism, cybercrime and cyberespionage) on the base of the new theoretical approach of modern security environment model.

The author presents a new European security environment after the “Cold War”, including not only the challenges and threats to the international security but also the essential conditions and problems of the European security evolution at the beginning of the 21st century. He shows the dynamic and constant changes taking place within the international environment and those related to the progress of civilization. Moreover, he stresses that current policy and security measures are not capable of effective action against having to appear before the new challenges and threats. Then the problem of unity and identity in the transatlantic relationship is taken. According to the author, in complicating sphere of the international conditions the role of multilateral institutions effectiveness in the international cooperation increases. Due to the increasing importance of interdependence and internationalization, European security challenges are European-wide and even transatlantic. Addressing them requires the preservation of unity that will be possible by strengthening common identity based on shared values and common interests.