Аttempts to reform the defense industry of Ukraine in 2000–2014 in the socio-political discourse

Abstract

The relevance of the study is обусловлена the need for a comprehensive scholarly understanding of the transformations of Ukraine’s defense-industrial complex at the beginning of the 21st century in the context of changes in the national security system. Despite the gradual recovery of certain production and export capacities of the defense-industrial complex after the crisis of the 1990s, the lack of systemic modernization, institutional stability, and effective mechanisms of public administration led to the accumulation of structural problems that significantly influenced the subsequent evolution of the sector.

Of particular scholarly significance is the analysis of the activities of state authorities and regulatory initiatives, including the functioning and liquidation of the State Commission for the Defense-Industrial Complex of Ukraine, as well as the adoption of the Concept of Military-Technical Cooperation with Foreign States. These institutional and programmatic decisions reflected the state’s attempts to form an integrated model for the development of the defense-industrial complex, while at the same time revealing contradictions between declared strategic objectives and actual governance practices. The relevance of the study is also determined by the insufficient coverage in historiography of the role of inter-party interaction in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the expert-analytical community in shaping state policy toward the defense-industrial complex.

The examination of these processes makes it possible not only to deepen the understanding of the logic behind institutional decisions of the early 2000s, but also to outline the long-term factors that influenced the subsequent development of the defense sector. Under current conditions, when the capabilities of the national defense-industrial complex have acquired critical importance, a retrospective analysis of the early stages of its transformation is essential both in scholarly and applied terms.