The article highlights the importance of the development of the society, as well as the measurement of this development, in the context of security, sustainability and competitiveness and goes much further by guiding to further research focus on the introduced new conception of "Secure and sustainable competitiveness" in the context of globalisation. The definition of "Sustainable competitiveness" was broadened by including new aspect of security. The development of the society was introduced as common output of the globalization which goes hand-in-hand with competitiveness, sustainability and security. The interrelation of certain facets between security, competitiveness and sustainability lead to the proposal to create the new index of "Secure and sustainable competitiveness" with possibility to evaluate the progress by looking back and provide prospects by looking forward. The research findings are in line with policy context and the development of the new index of "Secure and sustainable competitiveness" could be an important research contribution to the European union Strategy Europe 2020 for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth (2010).reference to this paper should be made as follows: Makštutis, A.; Balkytė, A.;Tumalavičius, V. 2012. Security, sustainability and Competitiveness: Benchmarking attempts, Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues 2(1): 5-12.jel classifications: H10, H7, K30, M10, O1, O40.

Global terrorism has become one of the most serious threats to the security in the world today. The number of suspects arrested for religiously inspired terrorism in the EU Member States increased approximately five-fold between 2009 and 2018. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the threats of Religiously inspired terrorism in the three Baltic States -Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The study was conducted using the methods of academic literature, statistical data analysis and qualitative content analysis. This study has applied quantitative technique and qualitative technique to explore the relationship between religiously inspired terrorism and relevant factors -Internal factors, Legal migration, Illegal migration, Participation in international missions and operations, Traveling to regions where terrorist groups have a stronger presence, Student exchange programs and foreign students, Employees from other countries e.c. The study has determined that the level of terrorist threats in the Baltics has not changed in recent years and remains relatively low. The Baltic States today is not a target for religiously inspired terrorism. The level of internal threat from existing religious communities has been low and remains low. No significant terrorism-related incidents have occurred in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in previous years. There is no reason to believe that these internal risks will increase in the near future. In turn, there are significant long-term risks associated with external threats. A balanced and neutral policy towards all religious denominations should continue in all Baltic countries. As a primary task, the authors conducted an analysis of a number of theoretical and practical tax incentives assessment models.

The Part I of article presents the current issues and latest trends of one of the public security policy one of priority -ensuring public security in combating crime. In article covers the main quantitative and qualitative indicators of the present-day crime in Lithuania and in the world; the key problems of crime prevention optimization and legal regulation and institutional problems of criminal process control are elucidated. This research focuses in particular on the importance of creating models for control and prevention of new crime acts. Also, the problems of prevention and control of some conditionally distinguished criminal processes -shadow economy, corruption, fight against human trafficking and violence in family environment -are scrutinized. As a result in this research is emphasised the importance of decentralisation in combating crime; the main guidelines of optimization and modernisation in this field are presented. The authors applied general scientific methods of studying objective reality, peculiar to legal sciences: systematic document analysis, metaanalysis, structural-functional analysis, teleological, comparative, critical approach, generalisation and prediction.

The article is devoted to the research and assessment of the development of the triple partnership between the participants of innovation systems -universities, business, and government in the Latvia-Lithuania-Belarus cross-border region which consists of Latvia's regions (Latgale region), Lithuania's regions (Vilnius region, Alytus region, Utena region, Panevezys region, Kaunas region), Belarus's regions (Vitebsk region, Grodno region, Minsk region, Mogilev region). The lack of attention to the above problems typical of this cross-border region determined the relevance of the research. Innovations are one of the key factors both on the macro-level and on the micro-level that influence the sustainable economic development of the region as well as the innovation potential of the enterprise. The stable development and efficient function of the territorial innovation system is the main condition for this. The study is based on a survey of 620 entrepreneurs from small and medium-sized businesses in the cross-border region.

Public administration is a set of state institutions that mainly exercises the functions of the executive body (rather than legislative or judicial) in accordance with the law. Public administration includes the Cabinet of Ministers, institutions subordinate to the Cabinet of Ministers as well as other independent institutions. The aim of the research is to analyse the historical development of the Cabinet of Ministers and ministries, to emphasize the main stages of development of public administration, while highlighting the problems that existed both during the period of Latvia's first independence as well as after the restoration of the state and seeking the best possible solutions for the further development of public administration. The study will use descriptive, dogmatic, historical, comparative and analytical research methods.