Features of the category of "threats" and disadvantages of its interpretation in foreign scientific discourse

The lack of a reasoned system of conceptual and categorical apparatus in security theory creates numerous problems both in defining the semantic spaces of the terms used and in establishing fundamental sovereign areas of research. The numerous new directions of developing security issues that have emerged are far from ambiguous and do not exclude elements of constructive criticism. Therefore, the main subject of the presented work is the interpretation of the concept of "threat" as the initial category of the theory under consideration, the analysis of the features of its interpretation and the designation of its own independent semantic space. Taking into account the results obtained, it is proposed to analyze the approaches to solving the issue under consideration by foreign authors. The efforts made in the work and the results obtained will make it possible to further adjust existing approaches to the remaining components of the conceptual framework of security theory, and, above all, to clearly and reasonably distinguish their semantic content. The achievement of these goals was carried out through the use of the deductive method of logical reasoning, which made it possible to designate the category of "threat" as the initial one among other concepts, system analysis, which determined the features of the substantive basis of the concept of "threat" and the method of meaningful comparison, which made it possible to identify and analyze the shortcomings of existing approaches to the concept of "threat" in foreign scientific content. The use of these methods made it possible to designate the category of "threat" as the initial one in the conceptual framework of security theory. The scheme of its semantic space is given, the main forms are highlighted – the real one, which is divided into explicit and hidden, and potential. Differences in its interpretation have been revealed depending on the type of impact source – living and inanimate nature (technosphere). In general, two elements are identified as determining the essence of the "threat" – the universality of the "possibility" of action and the presence of harmful effects as a result of the action. It is shown that the most common inaccuracy in foreign publications is the representation of a "threat" in the form of some phenomenon, process, factor, event that can cause negative changes somewhere. t is emphasized that everything that can cause possible negative consequences should be considered not the threat itself, but its source.