Education as an Element of National Security and State Resilience

Abstract

The article examines the role of education as one of the key factors in ensuring national security under contemporary security challenges and the transformation of the nature of threats. It is argued that, in the context of globalization, digitalization of social processes, the proliferation of hybrid threats, and armed conflicts, education transcends its traditional understanding as a social institution and acquires the characteristics of a strategic state resource. The study demonstrates that the educational system directly influences the formation of human capital, national and civic identity, legal culture, critical thinking, information resilience, and society’s capacity to respond effectively to internal and external challenges.

The paper analyzes the legal and regulatory framework governing the relationship between education and national security in Ukraine. It is established that, despite the growing recognition of the importance of education for strengthening state resilience, its role as an independent component of the national security system requires further normative and conceptual consolidation.

Special consideration is given to the impact of the Russian Federation’s full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine on the functioning of the educational sector and its role in ensuring national resilience. The article emphasizes that, under conditions of armed aggression, education performs not only an educational but also a security-related function by providing training for strategically important sectors, fostering national consciousness, and strengthening society’s resistance to information and psychological influence. It is concluded that an effective educational policy constitutes a necessary prerequisite for strengthening national security, defense capability, post-war recovery, and the sustainable development of Ukraine.

A comprehensive set of general scientific and special legal research methods was employed in the study, including the dialectical, systemic-structural, formal-legal, and comparative-legal methods. The application of these methods made it possible to analyze the regulatory and legal foundations of the relationship between education and national security, as well as to determine the role of education in ensuring state resilience in the face of contemporary security challenges.