Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

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 relevance of this article is based on the aim to fulfil the lack of understanding of public perception on nuclear energy in Lithuania. The results of the empirical survey (public poll carried out in 2013) are used to explain the public perception of nuclear energy and its contextual aspects (safety, economic benefit, possible new challenges, personal knowledge). To show the distribution of the attitude among the public cluster analysis was performed through which respondents were divided into two groups. The 1st cluster represents that part of the public which is well educated, actively working and actively contributing to the state economy. Meanwhile the 2nd is less educated, less active economically and more dependent on social security programs part of the public. The cluster analysis reveals small, but statistically significant differences in attitude between the clusters.

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.

Global crises of the end of the XX – beginning of the XXI century have additionally contributed to the search for new market opportunities and made it obvious that on the modern market efforts of one particular company are not enough to do business efficiently. Thus, companies choose a survival strategy in times of growing uncertainty and together with small-scale and medium-scale companies form unified structures which allow competing successfully with large companies. These structures also reveal and enhance their advantages which lie in flexibility and adaptability to the market demands. The article examines basic models of the intercompany networks which meet the requirements of transition to sustainable economic growth in the cross-border region (Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus).

The authors deal with the history of formation of operational and investigative psychology as a field of knowledge influencing the national security. The article discloses in details some psychological essentials of the application of this knowledge in everyday activities of employees of special forces units, police, prosecutor’s office, courts, punishment execution system and other law enforcement institutions. The authors also notes as important that during operational activities, in the process of determination of the truth, officers have not only to help in the reproduction of the facts, but also to try to achieve the truthfulness of the evidence. Because of applying, psychological techniques of operational investigative psychology create conditions for acquisition of correct and complete information about facts, particular events being of interest to law enforcement institutions ensuring necessary impact on persons who intentionally want to hide the truth and often forward false information. Therefore, the acquisition of psychological knowledge in the operational and investigative activities is a necessity for law enforcement institutions.

The safety and security research is presented as a problem of multiple levels. This article is focused on security on a national level within the wider international community. More specifically, it evaluates economic policy exercised by several members of the international community as the response to the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. “Economic statecraft” as a technical term presented by David A. Baldwin in the book with the same name represents economic policy exercised by International actor or multiple actors to influence the behavior of another actor in the desired direction. The main advantage of such tool is it`s non-violent nature as the opposite of direct military involvement often resulting in death and various atrocities. Baldwin as a realist or perhaps neo-realist on the field of the theory of international relations provides us with tools for assessment of the viability of economic sanctions. Evaluation tools can be used in retrospect when the wider economic data is available. Economic statecraft is the comprehensive name for economic policy instruments such as economic sanctions, economic warfare and foreign aid. When these are used in the particular case, their usage can be consequently evaluated taking into consideration four main criteria. The aim of this paper is to analyze, evaluate and discuss economic sanctions imposed against Russia as a consequence of Crimean annexation. A secondary aim of this article is to synthesize acquired knowledge and assess the success of sanctions in this particular case. Final part of this article reviews the outcomes of such economic policy using the Baldwin`s “failure makers.”

Financial security of companies is of the strategic importance. An effective credit risk management greatly impacts on a company security because its failure can threaten the existence of the company. These aspects are closely related to the sustainability of the SME sector, which is determined by many negative processes in the current post-crisis period. The aim of this article is to research the dependence between the entrepreneur’s ability to manage the credit risk in their company effectively and their knowledge of the corporate capital. Within the set goal, we looked at the differences in the attitudes of entrepreneurs depending on a company size, gender and education of entrepreneurs. To analyze acquired data, we used descriptive statistics, regression analyses and Z-score in our research. The originality of the article is that the whole process and result trajectory is focused on highlighting the financial security and sustainability of the searched sector. The results of our research brought an interesting finding. On the one hand, entrepreneurs declared a high capability of the effective credit risk management in their companies and, on the other hand, demonstrated a low level of knowledge in managing the corporate capital. This trend creates a potential possibility of a growth of corporate financial risks. The research results confirmed that the theoretical knowledge of the corporate capital has a significant impact on the formation of effective attitudes of the entrepreneur to manage the credit risk. Larger companies, men and entrepreneurs with higher education have much better level of knowledge of the corporate capital management. The research results enable to form a platform for a deeper insight into the financial security processes in companies and in the sustainability of the SME sector, especially in the current post-crisis period.

This article deals with the question of how we perceive organizations – as machines for making money, or as living systems with specific needs and objectives. In accordance with these views, a model of a biotic organization has been created with the research aim to measure the level of representation of biotic organizations in the business environment. The model of a biotic organization consists of four principles: amorphous structure, leadership, shared vision and service to its own environment. In practice, the existence of the individual elements of the biotic organization were evaluated by quantitative and qualitative research. Answers were sought and found to the four partial questions put forward, namely: What is the purpose of the existence of the organization? What type of structure is applied in organizations? Is there a shared vision within organizations? Which of these principles, management or leadership, is applied more in practice? The results of the research show that only five percent of organizations in the business environment are biotic organizations. This confirms the research hypothesis that this organizational form is not prevalent in the current economic environment. The low level application of biotic principles reveals that most companies are still organized on the basis of the principles of mechanistic organizations. This is reflected in formal hierarchies, a pyramidal structure and traditional management that create an environment of command and control.

In recent years, tourism businesses have had to face rapid changes brought about by modernisation, internationalisation, social changes, and the higher demands of tourists. These features have an impact on the current level of tourism services and determine the overall economic environment on the supply and demand side. To keep up with global and national competition and these new emerging processes, it is important for managers to discover and monitor how key global figures can have an impact on the future development of tourism units in the hopes to achieve further sustainability growth. Managers should adapt to the changing environment by using new methods and strategies that make tourism units sustainable for future generations. One of the main indicators measuring economic sustainability is gross domestic product, as it captures the market value of the measured services or goods in general. For this reason, it is worthwhile to determine what the interconnections with regard to gross domestic product and tourism variable are. Through this relationship, it is possible to evaluate the health of a certain economy of tourism that can serve as a viewpoint for the management of tourism businesses in a certain state. This research looks at the relationship between the chosen indicators from the tourism sectors of the Czech Republic and Norway. Its purpose is to identify the relationship between the chosen general economic indicators measuring tourism economic prosperity, such as overall gross domestic product for international travel expenditures within a 7-year period. The main aim of the research is to determine the relationship between the chosen indicators through comparison and trend analysis. The data will be examined in order to determine the relationship between the chosen variables, as well as the strength of the dependence of both variables. Based on these findings, further research may use gross domestic product as one of the crucial indicators for the measurement of economic sustainability with respect to its added value for tourism businesses and management.

This article is devoted to development, adaptation and approbation of the methodology for analysis and assessment of an inclusive educational space in a higher education institution which implements education for students with limited health abilities. Relevance of the topic is determined by the importance of implementation of effective inclusive education to ensure sustainable development of society. The validity of data presented in the research is provided by the representativeness of sample and the use of such methods of data processing and analysis as factor analysis, cluster analysis, and classification tree analysis. The five factor structure of the researched phenomenon presented in the research allows analysing the inclusive educational space at a higher education institution from different points of view. The formation of homogeneous clusters in the space of identified clusters will make it possible developing targeted programs for working with teachers and other participants of the educational process in the higher education institution, which will help to create a high-quality inclusive educational environment in the higher education institution and increase the effectiveness of inclusive education.