Challenges to national defence in contemporary geopolitical situation

The paper provides an assessment of Poland’s efforts to address security threats over the last decade. The analysis is limited to energy security, environment protection, cybersecurity and information threats. Governmental strategies, policies and plans are confronted with the assessments of the Supreme Audit Office, academia and think tanks. The paper identifies common challenges related to development and implementation of the state’s response to traditional and emerging threats. It also discusses observed trade-offs and consequences of both actions and hesitance to act.

The article aims to identify destabilizing factors of economic security and to elaborate recommendations aimed to improve the efficiency of the development of Kazakh enterprises. The authors have used methods of theoretical research, analysis and synthesis, as well as methods of concretization and analogy and an expert survey conducted with their direct participation.Results of the conducted research show that there is a relatively favorable economic environment in industrial production in the Republic of Kazakhstan. However, according to the expert survey, business activity, liquidity and profitability have been falling at many industrial concerns. Among destabilization factors restricting the operation of industrial enterprises, the following dominate: insufficient demand for manufactured products, deficit of own financial resources, tougher market competition and macroeconomic uncertainty. Even though this study mainly covers a range of issues related to Kazakhstan, its conclusions are of interest for the development of an economic strategy at enterprises that operate in other emerging economies.

Our paper focuses on the threats to the global development and sustainable economic development of a country that might include economic, political, human development, as well as sustainable development issues and problems. Sustainable economic development might serve as a tool for fostering the country’s prosperity and helping it to overcome various threats that might stem from its geolocation, economic situation, natural resources, as well as many other internal and external factors that all play their decisive roles. The paper uses a case study of the United States as an example of the country vulnerable to a plethora of threats. It analyzes the most crucial threats one by one and classifies the most notorious and impending issues stemming from these threats that might hamper the economic growth and development. In particular, we focus on the issue of energy security and the renewable energy sources (RES) that represent an important aspect in this debate and research. Our results can be used by the policymakers as well as regional development managers for improving the security strategy.

Since demographic problems have appeared, the pension system’s transformation has become an extremely relevant issue in terms of dealing with country’s social security problems. Development of medicine and a better quality of life have caused population aging which is particularly noticed in the developed countries. The problem of an aging population has encouraged scientists and practitioners to actively discuss the issue of social security. Particularly, the importance of a changing pension system has become a concern in regards of ensuring the public welfare. Therefore, the article analyses the sustainability of Lithuania II pillar pension funds using multi-criteria methods. The carried out research has enabled the evaluation and comparison of II pillar pension funds and their performance. The use of multi-criteria methods combining a few funds’ actions defining indicators into a whole have helped to evaluate the pension funds. In addition, it has helped to identify the funds’ operational sustainability and to choose the best fund, emphasizing the most important aspects for each member and shaping the weights of multi-criteria methods’ evaluation. It is important to emphasize that the aspect of reward indicator is significant in the asset accumulation in pension funds because the goal of these funds is to accumulate the biggest amount of asset for the future pension in a long period and not just to protect the money from its depreciation. Finally, it is worth mentioning that this type of a research provides a new perspective on the pension funds’ evaluation in the context of other criteria.

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.