National Security on Scientific Footing
The national academy’s institute of economics hosted a public hearing of the study Scientific Methods in Upholding the National Security System of Ukraine nominated for the 2002 state science and technology award.
This comprehensive study is the result of a ten- year series of research efforts, allowing to develop Ukraine’s first national security principles. Among the authors are noted Ukrainian experts, members of the National Security and Defense Council, State Commission for the Defense-Industrial Complex, National Institute of Strategic Studies, National Academy’s Institute of Economic Profile, Defense Ministry, and Verkhovna Rada (Valery Zayets, Volodymyr Horbulin, Bohdan Hubsky, Valery Muntian, Yuri Pakhomov, Serhiy Pyrozhkov, Volodymyr Shkidchenko, et. al.).
Presenting the study to representatives of the scientific community, SBU chief Oleksandr Belov stressed that the authors resolutely discarded domestic and foreign researchers’ views, predominant in the 1980s, when the notion of national security addressed exclusively possible military threats to a given country. “We proceeded from the integral notion of national security, essentially reflecting the complex and specific interrelationship of geopolitical, social, economic, humanitarian, political, military, legal, and other factors in the development of society,” he said.
Among these an important role is played by the human factor. The study reads that Ukraine’s most serious problems currently relate not so much to a decreasing population as to the structural changes within quality parameters, status of the gene pool as the basis of the evolution of society and polity. According to Mr. Belov, the authors reject allegations that today’s population crisis is the result of political miscalculations committed over the years of independence. “We believe that the reason is to be found in all those population catastrophes suffered by Ukraine in the 20th century, particularly during both world wars,” he noted. The study points to a rather paradoxical situation: health problems are getting “younger,” moving from the senior to the middle and young age groups. This is contrary to the process of nature. Besides, every next generation registers a poorer physical condition than the previous one. This foretells a lowering human potential of the entire nation in the long run, as a physically weak generation cannot produce healthy offspring.
The authors determined the national economic competitive ratio as the principal economic security criterion. Relying on an analysis of the main production factors in Ukraine — natural and manpower resources, capital — and their effective use, compared to the leading countries, they propose measures to improve them. The foreign economic aspect of economic security is treated in four respects. The first is protecting Ukraine against dangers stemming from globalization, mostly caused by a nonoptimal, extemporaneous foreign economic openness. The second one is an analysis of economic risks and miscalculations due to Ukraine’s involvement in international organizations and EU membership. The third one addresses the usage in Ukraine of world market reform experience from the security standpoint. The fourth one resolves the problem of the Ukrainian choice of international transportation corridors. The researchers believe that Ukraine lacks the prerequisites for waging a coordinated foreign policy aimed at protecting the national political interests. A real step forward here would be to launch a “national economic dialogue.” This nation must emerge on the international arena not as so many business entities, but as a single organism.
