Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

The aim of the article is to present and examine a unique role of social media in correlation with contemporary secure and sustainable development path by observing social and political processes, which in several instances led to a violent conflicts and crisis. Fundamental task of the article as well as its research goal is to give an answer to two questions – does the social media can be used to trigger revolutions and how military powerful entities as NATO and US are prepared to utilize the social media as a part of military efforts. First part of the article is focused on scientific approaches towards secure and sustainable development, followed by NATO’s and US military doctrinal approach to the use of the social media. After review of interrelationships between security and sustainable development, that part of the article covers such documents as NATO Military Concept for NATO Strategic Communication (2010), NATO Strasbourg-Khel Summit Declaration (2009), NATO Strategic Communication Policy (2009), US Capstone Concept for Joint Operations (2009), US Commander’s Handbook for Strategic Communication and Communication Strategy (2010) and revised US Capstone Concept for Joint (2012). The second part of the article is focused mainly on presentation of the usage of the social media in selected conflicts which took place in Lebanon, Kuwait, Kenya, Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Nigeria and another accord in long-lasting war between Israel and Hamas (so called operation Pillars of Defense). The article is concluded with final remarks addressing role of social media in processes of secure sustainable development of considered countries.

Driving factors and implications of foreign direct investments were widely discussed during the latest decade. Anyway, impression remains that due to the specifics of that type of investment, misinterpreting of their economic composition is rather frequent than rare. Hence, the paper starts with detailed classification of investment types. The next part of the paper is devoted to a review of approaches to FDI driving factors and outcomes. Finally, current trends of foreign capital flows in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are being observed and evaluated. Novel insights about new consistent patterns of foreign capital directions are being provided. The paper is being finalized by indicating contemporary implications of FDI withdrawal for host country related to its further secure and sustainable development.

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.

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.