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Ecological security problems, such as climate change and severe air and water pollution, have reached global attention over the last couple of decades. Environmental threats are usually caused not only by one state and can have impacts well beyond national borders. Hence, there is an obvious need for cross-national cooperation. The main object of this study is the challenges of ecological security in the Baltic Sea region and the efforts to meet them through cooperation within the Helsinki Commission. The Helsinki Commission is one of the main institutions seeking to ensure marine environment protection in the Baltic Sea through international cooperation between Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the wider European Union. To better understand the role and possible effects of the Helsinki Commission, a comparison between Sweden and Lithuania is being made. The main focus is on recent developments of ecological security, particularly after the adoption of the Helsinki Commission's Baltic Sea Action Plan in 2007. The central question of this work is: what are the main ecological security problems and objectives set by the Helsinki Commission and what are the challenges for implementation in Sweden and Lithuania? Descriptive, comparative, and analytical research methods are employed in order to analyze this question. Numerous studies have revealed that pollution, caused by the agricultural sector, marine transportation and other human activities, represent the main threats to the ecology of the Baltic Sea. Countries with large agricultural sector, such as Lithuania, will face serious obstacles in order to reach the objectives of the Helsinki Commission. Both Sweden and Lithuania are preparing national strategies for implementation, but it remains unclear how they will meet this challenge. In all likelihood, Sweden will face fewer difficulties than Lithuania, not least because the country has much longer experience in solving environmental issues, more economic resources at its disposal, a broader involvement of society at large, and a significantly smaller agriculture sector. However, even in the case of Sweden it remains highly uncertain whether all the criteria set out in the Action Plan can be met by 2021.

The question of small states in the academic literature is still treated as marginal, analyzing international relations as a "game of great powers". But the fact, that majority of states in contemporary international arena can be described as small, proves that analysis of behavior of small states is also important. Even though the security of small state is always in challenge, the number of small states in international arena is not decreasing, but even increasing. That means, that the problem of (in)security of small state is not irresolvable. Even though the question of security of small state is essential and tends to determine other aspects of behavior of small state in international arena, this issue was deeply analyzed only in 1950'-1970'. After the end of Cold War, the nature of international system have been modified in several aspects, and this also affected the question of the security of small state. Nevertheless international conjuncture sets several constrictions on the choices of security of small state, the final combination of choices belongs to the competence of the small state itself. This combination of choices is considered to be the model of security – the complex of long-term political choices in the sphere of foreign and security politics, being fixed in the strategic documents (Concept of national security, Strategy of national security, Strategy of foreign policy, Military strategy) and constantly appearing in political practice. If permanent political practice does not coincides with the principles, fixed in strategic documents, and then the principles, which are evident in political practice, are taken as a background of the model of security. The "model of security" is the original term, introduced in this paper. In literature the term "security policy" is used, but "security policy" emphasizes the partners of foreign policy, at the same time "the model of security" focuses attention on the type of relation between the state and its partners of foreign and security policy. In the period of Cold War small states, located in the intersection of interests of two superpowers, had only two opportunities: to joint one of them (to go to alliance) or not to join (to remain neutral). After the collapse of bipolar international system, one more model of security – complementarism - became possible. The main idea of complementarism can be described as the ability of small state to guarantee it's national security, relying not on one, but several "suppliers" of security. The main question of analysis was why small states, located in similar external conditions, tend to choose different models of security to maintain national security. The region of South Caucasus was chosen as an empirical case of analysis. Nevertheless states of South Caucasus are in maximum similar conditions, they choose different models of security to maintain national security: Georgia – alliance, Armenia – complementarism, Azerbaijan – neutrality. The results of analysis showed, that, in the case studied, two factors influence choice of the models of security: different type of threat to territorial integrity and different strategic resources of the country. The first factor determines the level of flexibility of the model of security – the more intensive the threat to territorial integrity is, the less flexible the model of security will be. The second factor influences the direction of the main vector (or vectors) in the model of security. It is worth to mention, that the results of analysis showed, that internal factors play a huge role in determining the model of security of the state. "Classical" theoretical insights stated that only external factors are those who determine choice of model of security of small state. As the analysis of case of the states of South Caucasus proved, the ignorance of the role of internal factors was one of the main missing points in the studies of security of small states.

The question of small states in the academic literature is still treated as marginal, analyzing international relations as a "game of great powers". But the fact, that majority of states in contemporary international arena can be described as small, proves that analysis of behavior of small states is also important. Even though the security of small state is always in challenge, the number of small states in international arena is not decreasing, but even increasing. That means, that the problem of (in)security of small state is not irresolvable. Even though the question of security of small state is essential and tends to determine other aspects of behavior of small state in international arena, this issue was deeply analyzed only in 1950'-1970'. After the end of Cold War, the nature of international system have been modified in several aspects, and this also affected the question of the security of small state. Nevertheless international conjuncture sets several constrictions on the choices of security of small state, the final combination of choices belongs to the competence of the small state itself. This combination of choices is considered to be the model of security – the complex of long-term political choices in the sphere of foreign and security politics, being fixed in the strategic documents (Concept of national security, Strategy of national security, Strategy of foreign policy, Military strategy) and constantly appearing in political practice. If permanent political practice does not coincides with the principles, fixed in strategic documents, and then the principles, which are evident in political practice, are taken as a background of the model of security. The "model of security" is the original term, introduced in this paper. In literature the term "security policy" is used, but "security policy" emphasizes the partners of foreign policy, at the same time "the model of security" focuses attention on the type of relation between the state and its partners of foreign and security policy. In the period of Cold War small states, located in the intersection of interests of two superpowers, had only two opportunities: to joint one of them (to go to alliance) or not to join (to remain neutral). After the collapse of bipolar international system, one more model of security – complementarism - became possible. The main idea of complementarism can be described as the ability of small state to guarantee it's national security, relying not on one, but several "suppliers" of security. The main question of analysis was why small states, located in similar external conditions, tend to choose different models of security to maintain national security. The region of South Caucasus was chosen as an empirical case of analysis. Nevertheless states of South Caucasus are in maximum similar conditions, they choose different models of security to maintain national security: Georgia – alliance, Armenia – complementarism, Azerbaijan – neutrality. The results of analysis showed, that, in the case studied, two factors influence choice of the models of security: different type of threat to territorial integrity and different strategic resources of the country. The first factor determines the level of flexibility of the model of security – the more intensive the threat to territorial integrity is, the less flexible the model of security will be. The second factor influences the direction of the main vector (or vectors) in the model of security. It is worth to mention, that the results of analysis showed, that internal factors play a huge role in determining the model of security of the state. "Classical" theoretical insights stated that only external factors are those who determine choice of model of security of small state. As the analysis of case of the states of South Caucasus proved, the ignorance of the role of internal factors was one of the main missing points in the studies of security of small states.

One of the spheres of health politics is a pharmaceutical regulation of markets. The supply of various markets is increasing and it is important to pay an appropriate attention to the safety of medicine and the security of the quality. Therefore, the regulation, as the set of rules in the context of pharmacy, is actual and necessary. The roles of governments and funds of insurance are complex and different in the regulation of the market. Therefore, there is a need to regulate the pharmaceutical politics of all European governments, especially in the spheres of effectiveness, quality, justice and control of prices. There are no thorough studies that there would be analyzed the cooperation of EU medicine agencies with institutions of Lithuania. There was studied the influence of regulation of EU medicine agencies in the Lithuanian pharmaceutical politics. Thus this work is important both on theoretical and practical attitude. The theoretical importance of the work is achieved by describing the regulation of medicine market in the European context of pharmaceutical politics: there were analyzed the models of the medicine agencies of the European Union, principal provisions of the regulation of pharmacy market, the jus base of medicine control in Europe, the system of pharmaceutical lookout. There is the analysis of medicine regulation institutions of European Union, their functions and accountability towards other countries members. It is the first work of such format in the Lithuanian language. A shift of acts of pharmacy law to national acts of law is analysed in the work, and the institutions, which activity is based on such acts are analysed in the work as well (The Department of Pharmacy and the Agency of State Medicine Control). The practical importance of the work is achieved by performing the qualitative research with the experts of pharmacy. It was tried to find out how official regulation (according to requirements of EU and the national base of law) goes practically. The research revealed institutions, that are responsible for the Lithuanian sector of pharmacy, and manufacturers of medicine which follow The EU jus provisions, that are moved to the national documents such as the Law of Pharmacy, the Law of Competition, the Law of Medicine advertisement, the decrees of Health minister and the inner laws of institutions, decrees, orders, sanctioned forms. There are the advantages when the provisions are realized practically. These advantages are the following: a high quality of medicine that is achieved by the system of pharmaceutical lookout. However, there are disadvantages of the procedures of medicine registration: the lasting of registration procedures, too much requirements for a leaflet and tare of medicine, and too quick shift of requirements. Furthermore, there are no conditions to provide the products that are registered in Lithuania to the European market, as Lithuania has no status of a referential country (there is no a registered, centralized procedure in Lithuania)

One of the spheres of health politics is a pharmaceutical regulation of markets. The supply of various markets is increasing and it is important to pay an appropriate attention to the safety of medicine and the security of the quality. Therefore, the regulation, as the set of rules in the context of pharmacy, is actual and necessary. The roles of governments and funds of insurance are complex and different in the regulation of the market. Therefore, there is a need to regulate the pharmaceutical politics of all European governments, especially in the spheres of effectiveness, quality, justice and control of prices. There are no thorough studies that there would be analyzed the cooperation of EU medicine agencies with institutions of Lithuania. There was studied the influence of regulation of EU medicine agencies in the Lithuanian pharmaceutical politics. Thus this work is important both on theoretical and practical attitude. The theoretical importance of the work is achieved by describing the regulation of medicine market in the European context of pharmaceutical politics: there were analyzed the models of the medicine agencies of the European Union, principal provisions of the regulation of pharmacy market, the jus base of medicine control in Europe, the system of pharmaceutical lookout. There is the analysis of medicine regulation institutions of European Union, their functions and accountability towards other countries members. It is the first work of such format in the Lithuanian language. A shift of acts of pharmacy law to national acts of law is analysed in the work, and the institutions, which activity is based on such acts are analysed in the work as well (The Department of Pharmacy and the Agency of State Medicine Control). The practical importance of the work is achieved by performing the qualitative research with the experts of pharmacy. It was tried to find out how official regulation (according to requirements of EU and the national base of law) goes practically. The research revealed institutions, that are responsible for the Lithuanian sector of pharmacy, and manufacturers of medicine which follow The EU jus provisions, that are moved to the national documents such as the Law of Pharmacy, the Law of Competition, the Law of Medicine advertisement, the decrees of Health minister and the inner laws of institutions, decrees, orders, sanctioned forms. There are the advantages when the provisions are realized practically. These advantages are the following: a high quality of medicine that is achieved by the system of pharmaceutical lookout. However, there are disadvantages of the procedures of medicine registration: the lasting of registration procedures, too much requirements for a leaflet and tare of medicine, and too quick shift of requirements. Furthermore, there are no conditions to provide the products that are registered in Lithuania to the European market, as Lithuania has no status of a referential country (there is no a registered, centralized procedure in Lithuania)

One of the spheres of health politics is a pharmaceutical regulation of markets. The supply of various markets is increasing and it is important to pay an appropriate attention to the safety of medicine and the security of the quality. Therefore, the regulation, as the set of rules in the context of pharmacy, is actual and necessary. The roles of governments and funds of insurance are complex and different in the regulation of the market. Therefore, there is a need to regulate the pharmaceutical politics of all European governments, especially in the spheres of effectiveness, quality, justice and control of prices. There are no thorough studies that there would be analyzed the cooperation of EU medicine agencies with institutions of Lithuania. There was studied the influence of regulation of EU medicine agencies in the Lithuanian pharmaceutical politics. Thus this work is important both on theoretical and practical attitude. The theoretical importance of the work is achieved by describing the regulation of medicine market in the European context of pharmaceutical politics: there were analyzed the models of the medicine agencies of the European Union, principal provisions of the regulation of pharmacy market, the jus base of medicine control in Europe, the system of pharmaceutical lookout. There is the analysis of medicine regulation institutions of European Union, their functions and accountability towards other countries members. It is the first work of such format in the Lithuanian language. A shift of acts of pharmacy law to national acts of law is analysed in the work, and the institutions, which activity is based on such acts are analysed in the work as well (The Department of Pharmacy and the Agency of State Medicine Control). The practical importance of the work is achieved by performing the qualitative research with the experts of pharmacy. It was tried to find out how official regulation (according to requirements of EU and the national base of law) goes practically. The research revealed institutions, that are responsible for the Lithuanian sector of pharmacy, and manufacturers of medicine which follow The EU jus provisions, that are moved to the national documents such as the Law of Pharmacy, the Law of Competition, the Law of Medicine advertisement, the decrees of Health minister and the inner laws of institutions, decrees, orders, sanctioned forms. There are the advantages when the provisions are realized practically. These advantages are the following: a high quality of medicine that is achieved by the system of pharmaceutical lookout. However, there are disadvantages of the procedures of medicine registration: the lasting of registration procedures, too much requirements for a leaflet and tare of medicine, and too quick shift of requirements. Furthermore, there are no conditions to provide the products that are registered in Lithuania to the European market, as Lithuania has no status of a referential country (there is no a registered, centralized procedure in Lithuania)

Sustainable energy transitions are increasingly becoming a subject to discourse analysis. This literature review looks at discourse analysis as a theoretical framework for energy policy research. It outlines its links with democracy, media and public sphere, argumentative struggle, hegemony and policy-making and research with specific focus on issues surrounding nuclear energy and energy security. The work concludes that recent cross-cultural discourse studies on energy, democracy and public debate are only beginning to emerge.

Sustainable energy transitions are increasingly becoming a subject to discourse analysis. This literature review looks at discourse analysis as a theoretical framework for energy policy research. It outlines its links with democracy, media and public sphere, argumentative struggle, hegemony and policy-making and research with specific focus on issues surrounding nuclear energy and energy security. The work concludes that recent cross-cultural discourse studies on energy, democracy and public debate are only beginning to emerge.

Sustainable energy transitions are increasingly becoming a subject to discourse analysis. This literature review looks at discourse analysis as a theoretical framework for energy policy research. It outlines its links with democracy, media and public sphere, argumentative struggle, hegemony and policy-making and research with specific focus on issues surrounding nuclear energy and energy security. The work concludes that recent cross-cultural discourse studies on energy, democracy and public debate are only beginning to emerge.

Europe demands that its people be culturally and intellectually equipped in ways that are suitable for their present and future. Only in this way will they be able to live meaningful lives in person and together. Higher education institutions play a key role in developing appropriate strategies. Higher education institutions are responsible for preparing their students for viable career development and citizenship development. Universities and other higher education institutions are increasingly realizing that their movement is a moving target and their leadership in the field of knowledge and understanding development and transfer means a new sensitivity to a society change. They are increasingly consulting their customers. Education inspires societal progress, but at the same time, it must respond with discernment to society by developing appropriate strategies for future study programs. Graduate studies in human resources management and national security programs prepare students for independent national budget evaluation (acting as the public finance specialists) which requires high qualifications. The managers of human resources in the public sector are in charge of public finance expenditures accounting and budget matters in the institution, and besides typical budget knowledge must demonstrate deep knowledge of public finance and the ability to combine human resource management and public expenditure issues. In order to achieve this goal, the national security master degree graduate program at Lithuania's Military Academy partially provides the study of specialized subjects in the fields of public finance and budget planning. One of the most important subjects is the national budget which requires from the students a lot of prior knowledge in the field of budgeting and taxation systems. Estimating that the main purpose of the governmental sector's human resources management could be the public finance, it is useful to show students the differences in the approach of national budget operations and tax revenues purposes. The teaching process should be based on accurately selected cases, so that it could be obvious for students. From a didactic point of view, the properly selected case is the one that contains a lot of differences between national budget, government budget, municipal budget and their records in the national law system. One of the examples that meets the above criteria is revenues collected from different taxes. Settled income from taxes is one of the most important revenues for the national budget. Moreover, principles of the government and municipal budgets diversification could be clearly understandable for graduate students. The paper presents the advantages and disadvantages of choosing the different taxes for the national, state and municipal budget concerning tax burden for different groups of society. Furthermore, purposes of teaching students subjects of public budgeting and principles of 38 taxation are discussed. Amid the many preferences the most important could be a pattern that clearly shows different approaches to budget expenditures and tax diversification as the interrelated issue, that is the amount of budget expenditures strictly correlate with taxable and non taxable income in the public finance and it depends on the budget legislation. Certainly, the indication of such relations is the essence of the public finance budgeting. Practical applications constructed on years of practice in teaching public finance, national and municipal budgets along with taxation theories were also indicated by the results of a survey carried out in a group of students studying the subject of public finance in the last academic year.

In this work the author is trying to describe the features of terror act, identify possibilities of delimitation from other criminal acts. There is created a hypothesis, that in the Penal code of Lithuania Republic the features of terror acts' consist are not clearly defined. There is emphasized the problem of differentiation of terror, terror act and terrorism concepts. The author is noticing that there are more studies about terrorism, in many cases they are of political or historical character, more analyzing the issues of terrorism, its' spread ant the activity of terrorist organizations, paying less attention for the analysis of terror acts, that are means for spreading terrorist ideology. In this work there is trying to distinguish terrorism and terror act, describing as criminal act, individual, unrepeatable, concurrent from concrete person, who realize these terror acts and its' victims. In this work also is revealed terror's, as creator of irrational fair, role in terror act. Following the decisions of Lithuania High Court, international juridical acts, other research work, in this master work are formulated concepts concerning the consist of terror act. There is emphasizing the importance of society's security as worth in penal law, which can be attempting by terror act. Society's security is described as state without danger, in this case danger is comprehensible as real possibility to make harm for saved objects (for example, strategic objects, the destruction of these objects harms to country's defense and economical safety) or to decrease the common security's level. The society's security can be offended and by causers' activities in penal code described work, meeting, residence or public places. In this work terrorist act is related with influence for the society, its' intimidation. There is predicating that by terror acts there are attempting in two levels: what disturbs for terror acts, and through what they are trying to reach their aims. The ideology of terrorist groups is described as the system of conviction, through criminal acts linked to citizens. From this rises aim of terror act. For this, ideology is jumping-off point, it describes terror acts very clearly and is the feature, which is suggested to be involved into terror act's consist. Emphasizing the main features of terror acts consist, it is possible to say that, they help distinguish terror acts from other criminal acts such as property's destruction in a dangerous for society way, murder or war acts. There are highlighted problems of distinguishing theoretical and practical acts. Concluding the analyzed material, there was created a hypothesis which confirmed that in Penal code the features of terror act consist are not enough regulated. There is also stating that in juridical technique's position, the juridical construction of terror act is chaotic, without strong conception, making problems of distinguishing it from other criminal acts.

In this work the author is trying to describe the features of terror act, identify possibilities of delimitation from other criminal acts. There is created a hypothesis, that in the Penal code of Lithuania Republic the features of terror acts' consist are not clearly defined. There is emphasized the problem of differentiation of terror, terror act and terrorism concepts. The author is noticing that there are more studies about terrorism, in many cases they are of political or historical character, more analyzing the issues of terrorism, its' spread ant the activity of terrorist organizations, paying less attention for the analysis of terror acts, that are means for spreading terrorist ideology. In this work there is trying to distinguish terrorism and terror act, describing as criminal act, individual, unrepeatable, concurrent from concrete person, who realize these terror acts and its' victims. In this work also is revealed terror's, as creator of irrational fair, role in terror act. Following the decisions of Lithuania High Court, international juridical acts, other research work, in this master work are formulated concepts concerning the consist of terror act. There is emphasizing the importance of society's security as worth in penal law, which can be attempting by terror act. Society's security is described as state without danger, in this case danger is comprehensible as real possibility to make harm for saved objects (for example, strategic objects, the destruction of these objects harms to country's defense and economical safety) or to decrease the common security's level. The society's security can be offended and by causers' activities in penal code described work, meeting, residence or public places. In this work terrorist act is related with influence for the society, its' intimidation. There is predicating that by terror acts there are attempting in two levels: what disturbs for terror acts, and through what they are trying to reach their aims. The ideology of terrorist groups is described as the system of conviction, through criminal acts linked to citizens. From this rises aim of terror act. For this, ideology is jumping-off point, it describes terror acts very clearly and is the feature, which is suggested to be involved into terror act's consist. Emphasizing the main features of terror acts consist, it is possible to say that, they help distinguish terror acts from other criminal acts such as property's destruction in a dangerous for society way, murder or war acts. There are highlighted problems of distinguishing theoretical and practical acts. Concluding the analyzed material, there was created a hypothesis which confirmed that in Penal code the features of terror act consist are not enough regulated. There is also stating that in juridical technique's position, the juridical construction of terror act is chaotic, without strong conception, making problems of distinguishing it from other criminal acts.

The paper deals with the specific features of the construction of an international identity by the EU & Lithuania. We do this by comparing the narrative of "Normative Power Europe" to that of "Lithuania, the regional center." The term "Normative Power Europe," though in use for some two years, still has no clear-cut place in the studies of European integration. So in the paper we first try to explicate its content by drawing a contrast with the more familiar concept of "civil power." We show that the term is an attempt at a new conceptualization of a problem that has been on the agenda of constructivist international relations studies for some time already, namely, that of the power of ideas in international politics. "Normative Power Europe" is defined as a discursive practice, as a narrative shaping the EU as a unique political institution which, by realizing itself via free exchange of ideas & opinions, is capable of changing the "normalcy" perception in international relations. In the EU political discourse the identity of EU as a normative power is constructed via the contrast of EU/USA politics, with America conceived as Europe's "Other." Next, in analyzing Lithuania's foreign politics in the context of the EU New Neighborhood Policy, we draw the parallels in the narratives made use of in constructing the identities of EU & Lithuania. A brief examination of the narrative "Lithuania, the regional center" shows its similarity to the narrative of "Normative Power Europe." First, the "Normative Power Europe" & the "Lithuania, the regional center" are both discursive constructions of their international identity. Second, both narratives are promoting a normative model, based on similar values & principles. Third, in both narratives regionalization is held a major instrument in spreading the values conducive to the creation of a common identity. Finally, both narratives perceive the common regional identity as a major security guarantee. The conclusion is that the narrative of "Lithuania, the regional center" is merely a nationalist replica of the "Normative Power Europe," with some peculiarities to be explained by differences in historical context & Lithuania's specifics in domestic politics. These are mainly due to Lithuania's attempt at reconciling her nation state identity & the ambitions of an active actor of the EU Common Foreign & Security Policy. Adapted from the source document.

In the beginning of the 21st century different features of the transformation of the contemporary international system could be studied. Among these features changes in nature of threats, actions of main actors of international system concerning changing security environment, appearance of new centers of power and military confrontation between the USA and Russia could be distinguished. Impact of polarity of the international system towards international security was one of the most popular topics of international relations in the second half of the 20th century. Concept of polarity as certain distribution of power in international system became very popular due to Realism school of international relations. Many different studies were made concerning this topic in the Cold War period, but after the end of the Cold War topics of international system and polarity in the international system seemed as unimportant and lost its significance. The new importance of polarity conception was brought by the emergence of new types of threats to international security and by unequal distribution of power in the international system that created unipolar structure with one superpower and several smaller centers of power in the beginning of the 21st century. In this article few presumptions and conclusions concerning the transformation of the contemporary polar structure of international systems were made. First presumption is that contemporary international system is transforming from strict unipolarity with one exceptionally strong superpower to modified unipolarity with one superpower and several emerging centers of power.[.].