National security as a tool for preserving Ukrainian statehood

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of historical aspects and understanding of the formation and implementation of national security as an instrument for preserving Ukrainian statehood. The relevance of this study is due to the vast base of scientific and regulatory developments, which are characterised by unsystematic and contradictory nature, which negatively affects the achievement of national security goals.

The purpose of this article is to study the issues of defining «the national security of Ukraine», its impact on policy-making and the totality of the State's activities.

The main results of the study are an analysis of the process of fundamental change in the interpretation of Ukraine’s national security in legal acts, and the author's own interpretation of this definition with due regard for the priority of human security. The author substantiates the risks arising from the shift in the emphasis of security to the state, which actually makes national security a less effective tool for preserving statehood.

The implementation of security during the war has radically changed the hierarchy of interests to be protected, which is primarily evident from the legislative definition of «national security of Ukraine». Whereas previously the legislator prioritised the interests and rights of individuals, then society and the state, now we see a tendency to emphasise the interests of the state. We consider this a rather worrying sign. In practice, it is quite obvious that the role of each individual citizen in ensuring national security remains undisputed. Volunteer fighters, volunteers, ordinary Ukrainians, who directly assumed responsibility for Ukraine's national security, realising the significance of the risks, approve this.

Scientists who study the issues of Ukraine's national security from a historical perspective, the process of its formation and further implementation, can achieve a change in the definition of «Ukraine’s national security» in the relevant legislative act with an indication of the protection of human beings first and foremost. That will eliminate legal conflicts and facilitate the effective implementation of the law.

So, in the historical context, Ukraine's national security as a tool for preserving statehood can be viewed in two ways. Thus, before the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the problem of national security was a formal approach to achieving security goals. As a result, national security failed to become an effective tool for preserving statehood and the entire spectrum of legal values. On the other hand, with the outbreak of war, the legislator decided to adopt a new law that uses a different approach to the definition of national values in regulating relevant legal relations, shifting the emphasis from the individual to the state, which is evident from the very definition of «national security of Ukraine». Undoubtedly such a position does not contribute to the achievement of the goal of national security and should be revised with due regard to the relevant comments made by scholars.