Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

Presented paper aims to indicate what types of interrelationships between energy usage patterns prevailing in particular country, economic growth and finally, sustainable development could be distinguished. The topic of paper, or, rather research area, is neither new nor original. Nevertheless, an array of approaches towards character of considered interrelationships can be encountered. Complicity of chosen issue, we reckon, lies in differences of perception of the following questions. Our findings consequently would depend on, at first, how we measure economic growth in short and long terms, the second, how we measure energy security, and, the third, how we benchmark progress towards sustainable development. Methods, which we consider as being applicable for measuring of selected interrelationships, comprise a separate part of scientific elaboration. Therefore we formulate a task to overview the most contemporary measurable perceptions of economic growth, perceptions of energy security facets affecting economic growth and consequent reaction of sustainable development to various scenarios of energy consumption and economic growth. Resulting conclusions about measurement of indicated phenomena and argumentations of their plausible interrelation would lead us to choice of methodological approaches of described interrelations’ analysis.

One of the most important strategic goals in Lithuania is implementation of sustainable development provisions. Taking into consideration closure of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant implementation of this aim depends very much on development of the Lithuanian energy sector. This paper presents some findings from the analysis of the Lithuanian energy policy and the energy sector development, in particular taking into consideration the role of energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and nuclear energy. The paper focuses on changes in primary energy balance and in deployment of renewable energy sources over the period 2010–2020. The paper also presents analysis of changes in electricity generation taking focus on factors stimulating construction of new regional nuclear power plant in Lithuania and factors limiting its attractiveness.

Presented paper suggests an instrumental approach to soft security and aims to reveal capacity of soft security instruments in terms of contribution to both security and sustainable development in the region which is addressed by Eastern Dimension of European Neighbourhood Policy and which includes Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Russian Federation (which is neither part of EaP nor among 16 EU partners addressed by the European Neighbourhood Policy) is also included in the overview as an important factor of influence in respect of regional security and relations between EaP states and EU. Referring to the main ideas of researchers and policy makers using different approaches to soft security as a phenomenon, the authors of the paper define soft security instruments as purposely organised social practices which rely mainly on sharing, congruence and development of values and competences of initiators and participants of security governance. Focus on the effectiveness of sharing, congruence and development of values and competences of initiators and participants of the EU policies and related joint projects as well as relevant combinations of soft instruments with economic and normative hard means is seen as a possibility to gradually increase level of regional security and transfer elements leading to sustainable development in this region.

The United States of America and the United Kingdom with the assistance of other NATO and non-NATO states initiated an international counter terrorism campaign the War on Terror (also known as the Global War on Terror (GWOT)). However, after more than ten years the War on Terror is still in the active stage. The pivotal issue regarding counter-terrorism actions in Afghanistan, considering how much money and energy spent on them, is whether such actions are effective or not. Dynamic system simulation approach was used to investigate interactions between counter-terrorism strategies used in Afghanistan (in the context of coalition strength) and the effectiveness of these strategies (in the context of terrorist strength). Data form different sources over a ten-year-period was used for analysis (2000–2010). It was found dynamic relation between recruitment rate of terrorist and coalition manpower that depends on time adjustments. However, further research is needed to get more precise results in finding causal loops in counter-terrorism system, thus this study should be evaluated only as a framework in further similar researches.

This paper analyzes theoretical issues of relationship between unemployment, poverty and crime in sustainable development. The concepts of these socio-economical categories were analyzed and theoretical aspects of relationship between unemployment, poverty and crime were disclosed. It was found that unemployment, poverty and crime, as distinct socio-economical process is not widely considered in the literature. More often the specific relationships between two of the variables are studied. The evaluation of unemployment and poverty, unemployment and crime, crime and poverty showed that all three components are linked together through a negative connotation with socio-economical consequences, which further reinforces the ignoring of principles of sustainable development in the socio-economical policy of the country.

Mobile communications is a booming sector nowadays, while the average revenue per user is decreasing year over year. Such tendency could create a significant risk factor for development and sustainability of mobile services in Baltics too. Development trends of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian mobile markets, their demand and supply individualities, drivers, challenges and risks are analysed in the article. Predicted development scenario (till 2020) shows the growing demand for mobile services and their increasingly active usage. Operators’ challenges and several risks for supply sustainability have recognized; they have to be prevented timely by operators as well by governments and regulators.

The present article is to examine benefits of social capital for innovation capabilities in the modern business world. First of all, the concept of social capital and its role are defined referring to a set of scientists’ interpretations on social capital and economic/ social development. This chapter allows an ingenious acknowledgement of the added-value of social capital to companies. The main patterns of innovation capabilities are revealed, followed by the methodology and research results presented. The paper emphasizes social capital as a driving factor for organizations while conducting innovations. In line with such elements of social capital as trust, social networks and norms that emerge as the driving factors within the literature review, the research, based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) methodology, mainly focuses on three elements of social capital: trust, norms and networks in Lithuanian companies. The research question: how such social capital elements as trust, norms and networks help organizations to innovate sustainably.