Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

Sustainable development and efficiency of public sector remain priority of governments. Hence, governments are concerned with assessment, plan and measure of functions performed by public institutions. However, various problems related to the methodology of functional review are indicated. The paper aims to develop the model appropriate for the planning and execution of functional reviews in public institutions. The research is based on the method of systemic analysis what let us carry out comparative analysis and synthesis of prevailing models developed by different scholars and practitioners. Suggested model contributes to sustainable development of public institutions by providing consistent guidelines relevant for various stakeholders.

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.

Global economic development and continuous growth of the world population are the major factors which cause growth of energy consumption and increasing volumes of greenhouse gas emissions. Attempts to achieve sustainable energy development are still not enough successful. Scientific community and international organizations are concerned with consequences of global warming: increasing temperature in various regions of the planet, significant and harmful effects on health and environment, growing number of extreme storm events and large wildfires, rising sea levels, changes in landscapes. Increasing efforts of governments and politicians should be directed to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels combustion by increasing energy efficiency and by deployment of renewable energy sources. The paper focuses on efforts of world community directed to sustainable global energy development, implementation of new energy policies and provides an overview of energy consumption trends in the world by 2035.

Aim of the paper is to outline a research methodology, which would ultimately allow predicting and enhancing competitiveness of less developed economies, which encounter energy security issues. The following theoretical questions are to be discussed. The first, what we mean by sustainable development in countries, which are in different economic development phases, i.e. if emphasis on different facets of sustainability (particularly economic environmental, related to energy consumption patterns) changes as country develops. The second research question raised in the paper deals with energy security issues. Authors tackle the following questions of methodological character: if/what natural consistent patterns of economies development exist; and how to indicate efficient ways of economic restructuring. Answer to the indicated questions would allow formulating policy implications directed towards energetically secure and sustainable development.

Driving factors and implications of foreign direct investments were widely discussed during the latest decade. Anyway, impression remains that due to the specifics of that type of investment, misinterpreting of their economic composition is rather frequent than rare. Hence, the paper starts with detailed classification of investment types. The next part of the paper is devoted to a review of approaches to FDI driving factors and outcomes. Finally, current trends of foreign capital flows in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are being observed and evaluated. Novel insights about new consistent patterns of foreign capital directions are being provided. The paper is being finalized by indicating contemporary implications of FDI withdrawal for host country related to its further secure and sustainable development.

Sustainable development process is affected by contemporary phenomena. Big Data processing inefficiency is detrimental for banks’ activity excellence. The software used for running and handling the interbank network framework provides services with extremely strict uptime (above 99.98 percent) and quality requirements, thus tools to trace and manage changes as well as metrics to measure process quality are essential. Having conducted a two year long campaign of data collection and activity monitoring it has been possible to analyze a huge amount of process data from which many aggregated indicators were derived, selected and evaluated for providing a managerial dash-board to monitor software development. The paper provides insights about the issues related to Big Data processing inefficiencies. Context of sustainable development is being taken into account.

The long-term existence of the civilization of Ancient Rome within the framework of one national formation should be acknowledged as a unique example of national sustainability. Such sustainability was also ensured by the successful economic growth, the elements of social policy implemented by state authority etc. However, the particular emphasis should be placed on the role of very effective Roman legal system – it is the legal institutes developed within the framework of this system should be acknowledged as one of the most essential factors ensuring the sustainable development of Ancient Rome and public security. Roman “infamy” (infamia – Latin) is an example of such very important legal institute. Infamy (infamia – Latin) was applied in the situations when a Roman not only broke the law thus facing the criminal or civil liability, but also came into the collision with the society’s ethical views on what is good and what is particularly undesirable thus taking a risk to lose the reputation and to have specific restrictions regarding rights. According to the information found in the primary sources of Roman law, the shield of infamy (infamia – Latin) protected a wide range of issues significant for the society (the state military defence, morality, family values, the interests of national economic circulation, an individual’s life, health, economic interests, the right for the just trial and just settlement of individual and property disputes) thus serving as a driving force for the sustainable development of the state and society of Ancient Rome and public security.

As an alternative to the conventional GDP, a new “progressive” GDP termed as the “Holistic Progress Index” or the HPI has been proposed; and an original approach to its quantitative evaluation has been presented. The HPI integrates social, economic, ecological and political aspects of human progress. The rationale of HPI and its evaluation methodology are presented. As proposed, the HPI is based on three major parameters i.e. the Net GDP per capita, Socio-Ecological Progress Index and Socio-Political Progress Index representing Peaceful Development, Sustainability and Human Freedom respectively. The factors involved in the quantitative evaluation of HPI are GDP, military expenditure, health, education, carbon emission, poverty reduction, leisure, population growth, crime and human freedom. Hence the proposed HPI is much more comprehensive than the conventional GDP. Future actions / projects required to utilize the concept of HPI are also proposed and discussed. It is concluded that a pursuit of the growth in HPI (rather than a growth in GDP alone) will lead to Peaceful and Sustainable Development without curtailing Human Freedom.

This paper analyzes theoretical issues of relationship between unemployment, poverty and crime in sustainable development. The concepts of these socio-economical categories were analyzed and theoretical aspects of relationship between unemployment, poverty and crime were disclosed. It was found that unemployment, poverty and crime, as distinct socio-economical process is not widely considered in the literature. More often the specific relationships between two of the variables are studied. The evaluation of unemployment and poverty, unemployment and crime, crime and poverty showed that all three components are linked together through a negative connotation with socio-economical consequences, which further reinforces the ignoring of principles of sustainable development in the socio-economical policy of the country.

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.