Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

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 analyzes the career planning model for officers in the Lithuanian Armed Forces as one of the key instruments to develop human capabilities and ensure military readiness. The purpose of the study is to assess how the interaction between vertical and horizontal career paths is defined in officer career planning documents and what impact this interaction has on the development of officers’ competencies, leadership continuity, and institutional resilience of the defence system.

Increasing emigration leads to the loss of investments in human capital as well as to the constraint of the knowledge economy via a huge leakage of demographical and intellectual capacity, hence threatening national security, social and economic stability. The target of the article is to examine the Lithuanian emigrants’ attitudes toward national security by analysing the relationship between emigration and national security, by disclosing the reasons for emigration, and by investigating the emigrants’ stance on national security. Long-term emigration lasting longer than a year has a greater impact on the country since most of long-term emigrants do not return. This is confirmed by the data revealing that most of emigrants live abroad for ten years or longer. Short-term (for less than a year) emigration can be qualified as a search for temporary financial improvement. It becomes evident amid financial crisis during which the loss of job opportunities and emigration leads to an increase in search for personal income and new experience abroad. Ninety four percent of participants of this research identify themselves as long-term emigrants, and 76% of them have a higher education. It points to the loss of educational investment and qualified labour force. The research reveals that most of survey respondents do not expect to return, for they do not trust the authorities. In addition, they deem that it is not reasonable to increase funding for the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The results of the study allow conclusions to be drawn that emigration is a real threat to Lithuania’s national security.

Postmodernity as a concept of contemporary society together with technological progress and globalization caused changes in orientation of values as well as the transformation of individual and collective identity. Thus, increased vulnerability, both of individuals and society, caused the character of threats to national security. The aim of the article is to analyze the contemporary threats to national security as a phenomenon of a postmodern society, emphasizing the crisis of values as well as of the identity. Postmodern threats forced to revise traditional point of view on the concept of national security and demands to be based on comprehensive approach on the issues of security and defense. This article is an attempt to make an analysis on the topic of national security in an interdisciplinary context. After analyzing the actual threats to the security of the Republic of Lithuania, it was determined that the interaction of many of these threats with the crisis of values is evident. This allows to confirm the importance of further discussions and scientific research on the issues of values and identity in context of national security in postmodern society.