ENHANCING SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT for NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY MAKING

Abstract

The article examines evolution of scholarly approaches towards the phenomenon of the “national security.” By the early 21st century this notion found its way in the official strategic documents of a wide range of states. The authors examine the Russian and international record of analysis in the field of national security, and assess the adequacy of existing views on this subject taking in the account emerging threats, risks and challenges, as well as the tasks of sustainable development of a country in the social, economic, political, information, spiritual and other areas. They start by presenting the early conceptualizations of this term in the debates of American experts in the 1950s and the 1960s. An important innovation of that period was disentanglement of the national security from purely territorial and military threat, by preparing for other types of contingencies. The article additionally examines the struggle between two alternative approaches towards protecting the national security in the United States: the one founded on unilateral domination and the other prioritizing collective actions. It demonstrates that the one important result of the Western debates was the emergence of a new field of study defined by policy relevant studies, which produce useful, original, and verifiable inferences, which are then injected in decision-making process. In order to promote a similar institutionalized expertise, the article suggests seceding the study of the national security in a separate discipline. This step will enable to further promote the training of specialists not only in the field of national security and strategic planning, but also political scientists and future specialists for the public service. The need for this is obviously related to the tasks of improving the quality of policy making and strategic planning in the Russian Federation, the implementation of national projects in an extremely complex international environment.