Tackling Economic Challenges Economics as a Prime Interest

Today, the world is such that the interdependence of states in it has assumed practically an all-encompassing character. Frankly, the problem of economic security is generated first by such interdependence. This process carries not only benefits and profits, but it is fraught with great potential threats for the security of states, especially of the states of the so-called average level, whose economy largely hangs on export, import, financial, raw material and other ties with the external agents. This means that serious failures or crisis among foreign economic partners immediately create serious threats to the economic security of own country. We still remember the case of the foot-and-mouth disease occurred in late 90-th in Europe and which brought to the brink of disaster the meat and dairy production not only in UK, but also threatened the same kind of production in many other countries of the world. These are special cases and they are very indicative and symptomatic for the contemporary of interdependent world. The same is about raising the U.S. tariffs on export of metallurgical products in early 2002, which created a tough condition in the metal industry of many countries causing sharp protests and bankruptcies in related sectors of their economies. The problem of economic security in general is specific by itself, but as such, it substantially differs from the problem of military and political security. The maintenance of economic security cannot be achieved by military force, quite the contrary, the military instrument of political system under certain circumstances may serve as a threat to economic security in general. Such is also approximately the role of the state in maintaining economic security: given the excessive state inter¬fe¬rence in the economy cannot strengthen, but on the contrary, weaken the economic security of one’s own country.