Challenges to national defence in contemporary geopolitical situation

The article presents the current issues and latest trends of the legal and administrative aspects of ensuring public security in the field of how road traffic safety is ensured. The legal regulation in this area and the problems of organizing the activity of institutions responsible for traffic safety are discussed; the situation of traffic safety in Lithuania and other countries in the Baltic region is studied. Utmost attention is attached to the organization and coordination of comprehensive measures, dedicated to the reduction of the rate of accidents. The authors applied general scientific methods of studying objective reality, peculiar to legal sciences: systematic document analysis, meta-analysis, structural-functional analysis, teleological, comparative, critical approach, generalisation and prediction. As a result in this research is emphasised the importance of decentralisation in ensuring public security at the level of the road traffic safety; the main guidelines of modernization in this field are presented.

The article presents the current issues and latest trends of the legal and administrative aspects of ensuring public security in the field of state border protection. Firstly, the research reveals aspects of the public security threats in the sphere of national border security. Secondly, discusses the administrative legal regimes of the state border and frontier. Further discussion pertains to the functions and strategic goals of the State Border Guard Service, and the activity-related problems are elaborated. Finally, attention is devoted to one of the significant priorities, aiming at ensuring public security in this field – the EU external border control and protection. The authors applied general scientific methods of studying objective reality, peculiar to legal sciences: systematic document analysis, meta-analysis, structural-functional analysis, teleological, comparative, critical approach, generalisation and prediction. As a result in this research is emphasised the importance of decentralisation in ensuring public security at the level of the state territorial borders; the main guidelines of modernisation in this field are presented.

The aim of this paper is to identify, design and classify general instruments applicable to stabilize development in defense spending as one of the decisive prerequisites of a long-term maintenance and development of national defense capabilities. Based on analyses of approaches implemented in the former Czechoslovakia and later in the Czech Republic as well as in other selected European countries, the paper submits a set of measures leading to defense spending stabilization. To gather data regarding practice in individual countries a structured interviews and a questionnaire survey have been carried out, addressing subject matter experts in selected European countries. Result of this research have proven that in a number of countries the issue of defense spending stabilization has never been addressed. Based on experience of those countries that have implemented certain measures of defense spending stabilization, it seems that the optimum approach to defense spending stabilization consists of instruments that are anchored in national legislation and that enable an overall fixation (reservation of certain part of government incomes for the purpose of armed forces maintenance and modernization).

The Part I of article presents the current issues and latest trends of one of the public security policy one of priority – ensuring public security in combating crime. In article covers the main quantitative and qualitative indicators of the present-day crime in Lithuania and in the world; the key problems of crime prevention optimization and legal regulation and institutional problems of criminal process control are elucidated. This research focuses in particular on the importance of creating models for control and prevention of new crime acts. Also, the problems of prevention and control of some conditionally distinguished criminal processes – shadow economy, corruption, fight against human trafficking and violence in family environment – are scrutinized. As a result in this research is emphasised the importance of decentralisation in combating crime; the main guidelines of optimization and modernisation in this field are presented. The authors applied general scientific methods of studying objective reality, peculiar to legal sciences: systematic document analysis, metaanalysis, structural-functional analysis, teleological, comparative, critical approach, generalisation and prediction.

Various types of calamities determine greater political attention to disaster management, but permanent efficient functionality of this sphere has to be the priority of the state as the guarantor of fundamental obligations to its citizens. Legal regulation sets fundations for functioning of certain system of institutions and processes, which intend to ensure proper disaster management. The article analyses theoretical aspects of disaster management in the context of public sector modernization with the distinction of traditional public administration, New Public Management, New Public Governance and Neo - Weberianism. The focus is on the acceptability of different models of public sector to disaster management. In the first part of the article, the attention is focused on the advantages and disadvantages of traditional public administration to disaster management. The second part of the article reviews the significance of the reform and the practical implications of the principles of New Public Management to disaster management. The third part of the article analyses the significance of New Public Governance discourse to disaster management and the fourth part defines the newest theoretical aspects of public administration Neo-Weberian model and its significance to increasing the efficiency of disaster management system is evaluated.