Challenges to national defence in contemporary geopolitical situation

Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) have become central to NATO’s approach to future warfare, requiring the integration of military effects across Land, Sea, Air, Cyberspace, and Space. This article analyses whether the NATO Defence Planning Process (NDPP) adequately reflects the capability requirements generated by the MDO concept. Drawing on unclassified NATO documents and open sources, the study identifies structural misalignment between domain‑centric capability planning and the integrative, data‑centric demands of MDO, and outlines implications for the adaptation of NATO defence planning.

The purpose of this investigation was to empirically assess the association between military expenditure and income inequality in the 19 European member states of NATO between 2011 and 2022. To achieve this, the authors carried out multivariate statistical analysis using Kaplan-Meier life tables and survival estimation techniques. The results highlighted a trend in the countries analysed that income inequality tended to decrease when investment in the military increased during the period under consideration. The association manifested itself in the shortest time in the group of countries with the lowest military spending per capita, while emerging in the longer term in the countries with the highest. Furthermore, under high threat of war, the association tends to be shortest in relative terms in countries with the lowest military expenditure per capita. The results also revealed that the association between military spending and income inequality is more pronounced in the smallest countries by population and those with the lowest military expenditure per capita. The authors believe that this investigation will enrich scientific knowledge with new insights.

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamas atkurtos Lietuvos Respublikos krašto apsaugos sistemos ginklų ir karo technikos įsigijimo 1990–2004 m. procesas, išskirti jo etapai, juos apibrėžiantys politiniai ir ekonominiai veiksniai, kilusios problemos, iššūkiai ir ypatumai. Tyrinėjama, kiek ir kokių ginklų būta Lietuvoje atkūrus nepriklausomybę ir kokią galimybę jais disponuoti turėjo atsikurianti Lietuvos Respublikos krašto apsauga, iš kokių šaltinių ir kokiu būdu jų buvo įsigyjama.

Romania’s membership of NATO and the European Union has many advantages, but also risks for each of them. Romania continues to strengthen its position and role within NATO and the EU. Romania has shown that it is a loyal and credible partner in its relationship with all international organizations. Romania’s strategic documents with NATO and the EU are well structured and clear. These include mission, vision, strategic objectives and ways of cooperating with each other, as well as the financial, material, human and informational resources needed to implement them. The objective of our research was to identify the main threats, risks and vulnerabilities of Romania as a NATO member state. The analysis has led to the discovery of new ways of reducing risks and threats, as well as solving the major vulnerabilities of Romania. The research is based on the National Defense Strategy, the Romanian Armed Forces Endowment Plan for the period 2019-2028 and other strategic documents underpinning the development of the cooperation between Romania and NATO. Within the analysis process the main threats, risks and vulnerabilities of Romania in relation to NATO were identified. Based on the analysis carried out, several ways of action are proposed through which Romania can strengthen its defense and security capabilities. The results of the research are relevant both theoretically and practically because they show the major changes that Romania has made after entering NATO and the exceptional performances achieved both in the development of the defense and security capability and in fulfilling the commitments assumed by Romania with NATO and other organizations it belongs to.

Organizational processes are often described as being “top-down” or “bottom-up”. At the level of EU integration relations between EU and member-state institutions can also be conceptualized in these terms. European integration is based on decisions made by representatives of its member-states and member-states have a large degree of discretion in the implementation of EU policies. This gives off an appearance of a “bottom-up” quality to pan-European policy. But when it comes to part and parcel of public administration many national government agencies can only perceive this process “top-down”. The complexity of policy design process and absence of co-ordination of how national agencies go about their business means that policy adoption is seldom straightforward across member-states. Once policies are set in motion, there are limited possibilities of review stemming from the “bottom”. In some sense, this is the story of the road to Brexit. The paper claims that current challenges to European integration may in part be attributed to this institutional setup. This paper revisits the concept of European Administrative Space to see if it can be framed in terms of “bottom-up” integration, whereby essentially member states would be encouraged to test their proposed national reforms from the point of view of EUfriendliness. Proliferation of such a practice would not require any major legal change or governance process standardization. With proper monitoring the practice could augment the existing international co-operation between government agencies by opening venues for cost sharing, and streamlining the “top-down” policy decisions once political will becomes available.