I. SECURITY ENVIRONMENT 1. Global Environment The last decade of the last and the beginning of this century was marked by new security trends in the world. Mostly from the military sphere, security is expanded to other areas, primarily economic, energy, societal and environmental security, including security of the individual and society as a whole. Termination of bloc confrontation, the spread of democracy, creating a multipolar world, the integration processes in the field of security and more intensive economic and cultural cooperation and interdependence reduce the risks of conflict between states, as well as the possibility of crises and conflicts. After the end of the Cold War, the risk of a global military conflict is significantly reduced. The world is, however, still faced with many traditional and new security challenges, risks and threats. The circumstances that contribute to a growing number of security risks at the global level are primarily large differences in the degree of economic and cultural development, whose consequences are poverty and social vulnerability of the population, which causes the occurrence of demographic and psycho-social phenomena. Regional and local conflicts, ethnic and religious extremism, terrorism, organized crime, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and illegal migration, climate change and growing deficit of energy resources threaten the stability of individual countries and whole regions, and also global security. The essential feature of these challenges, risks and threats is that they become more unpredictable, asymmetric and have a transnational character. In terms of the globalized economy, the macroeconomic consequences of major disruptions in the functioning of financial markets in the world also reflect on the state of global security. The consequences of the global economic crisis may lead to the prevalence of narrow national interests in the system of international economic relations and delay in resolving the priorities of global security, actualize the danger of social unrest and contribute to undermining the internal stability in some countries and intensify investment in the military industrial complex and the continuation of the arms race. 4