State security policy is not created in a vacuum. In general, policy‑making is affected by external and internal variables and influences on the security environment as well as by responses to all these factors. Political decision‑making is another significant intervening variable. The aim of this study is to define the security environment of the Visegrad countries in both its narrow and broader senses. To this end, I consider common factors that have affected - and continue to influence - all four countries in order to reveal and evaluate the policy development processes in these states up to the present day. My methodology relies on case studies that trace the security policies of each of the Visegrad countries since the end of the bipolar standoff. The comparison in my conclusion highlights significant challenges now affecting the security policies of all these countries including defence budgets, the crisis in Ukraine, the position of EU member states and growing nationalism and extremism.

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Security, as expressed by the security policy of a state, is one of the most fundamental aspects of a foreign and defense policies of a state. Together, they create a foreign orientation of the state which may alter with time, space and under the influence of political decision-making. This paper presents the sources of the strategic orientation of Slovakia that emerged in reaction to historical events that the faced country Slovakia gradually integrated into the European and Euro—Atlantic structures with the emphasis on coalition changes in the governance of the state. This paper, through analysis and comparison, shows the dominant changes in the Slovakian security environment. In any case, it has been the destiny of small countries to maintain their security through cooperation and integration.

Through the United Nation's Charter, the UN Security Council represents the most powerful executive institutional body in the field of collective security. Moreover, its ultra vires acts may have distinct legal consequences. Accordingly, questions arising from these facts are whether such a large scope of competences could be abused, what are the limits of the executed power and above all, affirmation of the legality of the actions of Council. Predominantly by means of the analytical method as well as a case study of the Lockerbie case, the present study provides the related argumentative discourse. Notwithstanding the fact that the decisions of the Council appear to be without any limitations, it is obliged to act within the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. The opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legality of the SC's actions in the field of collective security are still, however, indirectly expressed through its general function.

Changes in the development of society bring new issues to be discussed not only within the sphere of civic activities, but also within the academic domain. These phenomena occur cyclically and remain still - after periods of passed time - topical. One of them is identity with its high relevance and, at the same time, it accounts for one of the scientific research issues which try to figure out why social adaptability of an individual is changing, and which, during a certain span of time, has created permanent features. The article is aimed at the basis of monitoring the term identity as well as at the analysis of social context related to the life of an individual, which might cause a change of their identity. At the end of the article is applied on the European sphere, as well as to sort out those definitional elements that are characteristic for the contemporary forms of identity. The applied methods of the article are determined by the topic itself - conceptual analysis, synthesis in the first two parts. Short case study is used in the last part of the article. A conceptual frame of the topic is the social and economic reality. We must state that today also this collective "identity" has succumbed to erosion. But the positive civic identity of a citizen living in a democratic state should be able to accept social change by actively contributing to it.