Lecture
The drafting and adoption of the National Security Concept of the Russian Federation made it possible to define concretely Russia's national interests, national goals and national values, and to enshrine them legally in normative legal documents defining the political and socio-economic organisation of society, state and cultural development, and the unity and cohesion of the nation.
H. Palmerston, Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1855-1858 and 1859-1865 and leader of the Whig Party, on the basis of which the Liberal Party was formed, said: "We have no eternal allies and no eternal enemies. We have permanent, eternal interests, and those we must follow".
National interests are derivative of the needs of citizens and of their value orientations, and are underpinned by the capabilities of the economic, political, social, military and other organisation of the state and by the spiritual-moral and intellectual potential of society. In addition, the components of national interests include the declared aims of the state contained in the constitution or in constitutional laws.
In order to understand the essence of national interests, a number of their characteristic features may be distinguished: national interests are intended to ensure the survival and security of the country and of the given society, and to ensure sustainable and progressive development; national interests are directed at resolving vital internal and external tasks and at parrying, neutralising and preventing various dangers and threats; national interests act as the motives and causes of the actions of state institutions and social groups in achieving the goals they have set; national interests are realised through various types of policy (domestic and foreign; economic, technical, military, social, cultural and others); national interests represent conscious, formulated and officially declared priorities in one field or another.
One possible classification of national interests is their division by social significance, distinguishing three groups of national interests: vital interests, important interests, and interests as such.
The first group comprises interests connected with the realisation and protection of values the loss of which may lead to the undermining of the very foundations of the existence of citizens, society and the state. Within the sphere of vital interests lie sovereignty, state and territorial integrity, the constitutional order, the country's defence capability, and the moral and physical health of the nation. It is precisely the protection of vital interests that is the prerogative of the national security system.
The second group is connected with the realisation of the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, the preservation of socially significant assets of society, and overcoming and suppressing social, racial, ethnic and religious discord, organised crime, and the like.
The third group comprises all other interests. As a rule they are connected with ensuring favourable conditions for the development of society, civil peace and concord, the realisation of the principles of a democratic society and social justice, protection of the environment, the establishment of mutually beneficial and good-neighbourly cooperation with foreign states, and so on.
The boundaries between the groups of interests are conventional and shifting. Depending on specific conditions, particular interests may acquire the status of vital ones and vice versa. For example, after the sharp pronouncements of international terrorists, including those of a practical nature, national interests relating to protecting Russia and its citizens from international terrorism moved into the category of first priority.
At the same time, for present-day Russia the formulation of national interests is complicated by a number of factors of an ethnic and religious character, and by the unsettled relations between state and society.
Russia's national interests are the aggregate of the balanced interests of the individual, society and the state in the economic, domestic-political, social, international, information, military, border, environmental and other spheres. They are long-term in nature and determine the main goals and the strategic and current tasks of the state's domestic and foreign policy. National interests are safeguarded by the institutions of state power, which perform their functions including in interaction with public organisations operating on the basis of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the legislation of the Russian Federation.
The interests of the individual consist in the realisation of constitutional rights and freedoms, in ensuring personal security, in raising the quality and standard of living, and in the physical, spiritual and intellectual development of the human being and citizen.
The interests of society consist in the strengthening of democracy, in the creation of a law-governed, social state, in the achievement and maintenance of social concord, and in the spiritual renewal of Russia.
The interests of the state consist in the inviolability of the constitutional order, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Russia, in political, economic and social stability, in the unconditional maintenance of legality and the upholding of law and order, and in the development of equitable and mutually beneficial international cooperation.
National values exert a considerable influence on the recognition and formation of national interests. The content of values is conditioned by the cultural achievements of societies. The world of values is above all the world of culture in the broad sense of the word; it is the sphere of a person's spiritual activity, of his moral consciousness, of his attachments - those evaluations in which the measure of an individual's spiritual richness is expressed. In other words, national values are the fundamental norms expressing the particular significance of certain spiritual and material goods for the existence and development of the nation.
A formalised statement of Russia's national values is contained in the preamble of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Among them are: the affirmation of human rights and freedoms, of civil peace and concord; the equality and self-determination of peoples; the memory of the ancestors who passed on to us love and respect for the Fatherland and faith in goodness and justice; the sovereign statehood of Russia and the inviolability of its democratic foundation; the well-being and prosperity of Russia; responsibility for one's Motherland before present and future generations; and awareness of oneself as part of the world community.
This list was supplemented in one of the annual Addresses of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly, which emphasised that the state and its policy must be based on natural values such as security, freedom, well-being and solidarity. And the National Security Concept of the Russian Federation states that ensuring national security includes the protection of the cultural and spiritual-moral heritage, historical traditions and norms of social life.
Thus the content of national values comes down to three main blocks: the prosperity of the people; the protection and development of the territory of habitation; and the preservation and development of the national culture.
The hierarchy of a country's national interests also determines the system of its national goals. National goals are the fundamental reference points in the activity of the state, society and individual citizens in realising and protecting national interests. National goals are the most mobile element in the system of national security; they are determined and formed in society through the prism of national values and interests. National goals translate questions of the protection of national values and interests into practical terms and determine the priorities of the state's domestic and foreign policy.
The realisation of a state's national interests is possible only on the basis of the sustainable development of the economy. Russia's national interests in this sphere are therefore of key importance.
At the same time, in actual social reality there exists a very broad spectrum of national interests encompassing all spheres of society's life - politics, the economy, culture, the military field, relations with other states and so on. It must also be borne in mind that national interests may change dynamically and be adjusted depending on the specific political situation.
A state's national interests are customarily divided into interests in the foreign-policy sphere (international) and in the domestic-policy sphere (economic, social, spiritual, military and others).
Russia's national interests in the foreign-policy (international) sphere consist in ensuring sovereignty, in strengthening Russia's position as a great power - one of the influential centres of a multipolar world, in developing equitable and mutually beneficial relations with all countries and integration associations, above all with the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States and Russia's traditional partners, and in the universal observance of human rights and freedoms and the inadmissibility of applying double standards in this regard.
In the domestic-policy sphere, Russia's national interests consist in preserving the stability of the constitutional order and of the institutions of state power, in ensuring civil peace and national concord, territorial integrity, the unity of the legal space and law and order, and in completing the process of establishing a democratic society, as well as in neutralising the causes and conditions conducive to the emergence of political and religious extremism and ethnic separatism and their consequences - social, interethnic and religious conflicts and terrorism.
Russia's national interests in the social sphere consist in ensuring a high standard of living for the people.
National interests in the spiritual sphere consist in preserving and strengthening society's moral values, the traditions of patriotism and humanism, and the country's cultural and scientific potential.
Russia's national interests in the information sphere consist in observing the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens in the field of obtaining and using information, in developing modern telecommunications technologies, and in protecting state information resources from unauthorised access.
Russia's national interests in the military sphere consist in protecting its independence, sovereignty, and state and territorial integrity, in preventing military aggression against Russia and its allies, and in ensuring the conditions for the peaceful, democratic development of the state.
Russia's national interests in the border sphere consist in creating the political, legal, organisational and other conditions for ensuring the reliable protection of the state border of the Russian Federation, and in observing the procedures and rules established by the legislation of the Russian Federation for carrying out economic and other types of activity in the border space of the Russian Federation.
Russia's national interests in the environmental sphere consist in preserving and improving the environment.
The most important components of Russia's national interests are the protection of the individual, society and the state from terrorism, including international terrorism, as well as from natural and man-made emergencies and their consequences, and, in wartime, from the dangers arising in the conduct of military operations or as a result of such operations.
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