Lithuanian Annual Strategic Review

Jair Messias Bolsonaro was the president of Brazil from 2019 to 2023, and he is regarded as one of the most pro-American presidents in Brazilian history. Due to similar political rhetoric, J. Bolsonaro was often compared to Donald John Trump. During his administration, Brazilian foreign policy was orientated towards improving bilateral relations with the USA. In this article, I used neoclassical realism theory to examine the dynamics of Brazil-USA relations during J. Bolsonaro’s presidency and how his ideological proximity to D. Trump affected relations between these two states. I also took into consideration the systemic factor that the USA is the strongest state in the American continents, and from this, I constructed the argument that the USA’s superiority in power against all countries in the Western Hemisphere forced J. Bolsonaro to maintain dialogue even with ideology different Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. administration (2021-2025).

Sustainable and secure development of any country is considerably affected by energy efficiency of economy. Efforts directed to diminishing of energy resources consumed have to be directed to achieving multiple goals, ultimately impacting demand in energy resources. Hence, ultimate demand of energy resources depend on economic growth rates, economy structure, technological level, distribution of income and behavioral patterns, both of business companies and households. This paper is devoted to analysis of energy efficiency in transport sector of three secected European countries. The methodology of research is based on comparison on long-term tendencies of energy intensity in transport equipment segment. The long-term forecasting untill year 2050 will be performed by using LEAP (the Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning system) software; ceteris paribus assumption will be selected. The countries selected for analysis are: Belgium, Bulgaria and Lithuania. The selected countries, we assume, would represent better developed Europea countries (represented by e.g. Belgium), and comparitively less developed European countries of different size (represented by Bulgaria and Lithuania). The juxatopsing of energy intensity change in long run, revealing mode of this change and comparison of cases of selected countries, would allow to reveal if energy efficiency of transport equipment converge. Since trnasport equipment sector embraces various modes of transport, additionally public roads sector will be tackled. We believe, that results obtained will signal what policy implications, if any, are necessary in order to direct transport users towards stewardship of energy resources through increase of efficiency of conventional energy resources and transfer to renewables in the nearest future.

Each country has to be able to develop efficient economic policy, facilitating sustainable economic development of national economy. In order to devise such policy, development patterns of a country has to be known, external threats indicated and various scenarios of their impact has to be foreseen, their impact forecasted and discussed. Alas, in contemporary environment in conditions of globalization predicting of development peculiarities and external factors’ impact becomes especially urgent issue. Presented paper is devoted to discussion about predicted development selected national economies with account of threats caused by global environment. Economic indicators of Lithuania and Germany forested for period of three years, estimated, are being analyzed. The following methodology is applied. At first main macroeconomic indicators, such as real GDP growth, inflation, interest rates and unemployment ceteris paribus forecasted until year 2022 will be compared. The second, external threats will be selected and considered. Forecasted impact of indicated threats on real GDP growth of Lithuania and Germany will be discussed; source of employed data: database Passport, provided by Euromonitor International Company and powered by Clarivate Analytics (data are provided for research purposes for subscribed users). Change of real GDP growth in Lithuania and Germany under indicated threats pressure after one year period and three years period is juxtaposed. The findings suggest insights about development patterns of small comparatively less developed open economy and big well developed country belonging to the same economic union. Findings are instrumental for devising national economic policies enhancing resilience of national economies to external (global) threats.

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 paper presents research which investigates the implications of national culture and organizational culture in the Lithuanian and Russian SMEs. While much of the attention has been given to organizational culture in large companies, little research has been focused on organizational and national culture in SMEs. The research is based on the main ideas of Hofstede’s framework of seven cultural dimensions and Denison’s cultural model, which measures culture in organizations with four major traits, such as involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission. The quantitative research is based on responses to a questionnaire embracing various aspects of national and organizational culture. The authors of the research have elaborated proposals for further research.