Challenges to national defence in contemporary geopolitical situation

This study examines the formation of the professional identity of future officers in the context of contemporary defense challenges, with a focus on pedagogical competence. A quantitative study was conducted using a questionnaire developed by the author. Cadets rated pedagogical competence as no less important than tactical and technical competence; however, they indicated that psychological competence is not sufficiently developed. The study’s findings contribute to research on officers' professional identity by emphasising the educational aspect of military professionalism. Pedagogical, leadership, and psychological competencies should be systematically integrated into officer training programs to strengthen professional identity. In this article, pedagogical competence is defined as an essential element of the professional identity of future officers, helping them respond to contemporary defense challenges.

This article examines the assessment of teaching of selected science and humanities undergraduate courses, some of which were taught remotely and others in person. In a questionnaire survey students compared face-to-face and distance learning of the subjects. The data were statistically processed using descriptive statistics, Mantel-Haenszel test of linear association, Pearson chi-square goodness-of-fit test, and finally cluster analysis. According to the opinion of most students, distance learning was comparable to face-to-face learning. When the respondents were divided into clusters, two comparable groups emerged—one preferring face-to-face learning, the other preferring distance learning. Humanities subjects showed to be less time-consuming and yielding better final grades for the students.

This paper examines the use of Virtual Reality (VR) for teaching the historical role of artillery. The methodology combines VR-based scenarios with behavioral and speech analytics supported by Artificial Intelligence. The findings indicate that VR enhances understanding of decision-making under constraints and shifts learners from technical to context-driven reasoning. The results suggest that VR can improve the linkage between theory and operational practice in artillery training. The study contributes by integrating experiential learning with measurable performance indicators and offers a novel approach to military education.

National security and sustainability are the main priority of any state. Therefore the Republic of Lithuania as well as any other state follows its National Security Strategy which establishes the interests of national security, directions of its evolution, the security and defence policy in general, means and types of risk factors and threats to the national security. This study investigates the issues of legal preparation in the military high school. The topical issues directly related to the national defence and security which arise in the run of the training course for the military, especially junior leaders at the institution of higher education in the sphere of providing them with the basic legal knowledge, are presented and examined in the article. In the process of training and upbringing of a junior leader more attention is paid to their professional skills and competencies, and a leader’s and subordinate’s personality, therefore, a system of legal preparation and training provided for students of this kind of educational institutions, its role and degree of influence on personal qualities of a future leader have not yet been studied and described in scientific publications. The above mentioned observations determined the rationale for choosing the topic for the research paper. Its relevance is without doubt. It has been concluded that a leader who is politically correct and competent in the legal sphere can ensure that the decisions made are well-reasoned, consistent and adequate, and they are aimed at the elimination of possible disagreements which might emerge in the sphere of human resource management, management of military units in the run of resolving their daily tasks, holding negotiations at any levels, as well as enhancement of the army’s defensive power in general.