Strengthening national security: «living» ethno-identification needs and appropriate ethnopolitical emphasis

Abstract

Introduction. National security is a complex category, the determinants of which are embedded in the very foundations of human evolution, as well as in nation-state construction and the institutionalization of the political system and socio-political relations. Ensuring national security encompasses the security not only of the state but also of society, including strata and groups differentiated by various identity characteristics. Accordingly, a significant component of the national security of the Russian Federation as a multi-ethnic, multi-component federation is the security of ethnic communities through the satisfaction of ethno-identification needs and the optimization of ethno-political emphases, which is clearly evident in the North Caucasus region.Purpose. Identifying ethno-identification needs (including deficits), as well as ethnopolitical emphases in the design and implementation of national security in the North Caucasus region.Theoretical Basis. A categorical understanding of national security is linked to the assets of philosophical and socio-political knowledge, as well as the interdisciplinary methodology of dialectical scientific analysis. It allows us to identify politically determined, institutionally instrumental factors of national security, including political determination, nation-state building, the tradition of government-citizen relations, and others. Along with the philosophy of national security, the political science of national security has significant potential, considering it as an institution encompassing an ideological and doctrinal basis, programmatic and project-based goal-setting, an organizational and functional structure, and value properties differentiated across political time and space. A multi-paradigmatic approach to ethnicity as an identification complex allows us to identify not only cultural but also political projections of national (ethnic) self-determination, integrated into the modern Russian civil process.Results. An important component of national security in a multiethnic and multicomponent Russian Federation is ethnic security as a guarantee that Russian citizens fulfill their needs in the field of ethnic identity. Disregard for the ethnic interests of citizens and at the same time uncontrolled politicization of ethnicity lead not only to ethnic conflicts, but also to separatism, extremism and terrorism, as well as to the threat of the collapse of the state. In this regard, the problem of ethno-identification needs and ethnopolitical accents, significantly differentiated by the communities of Russian regions, among which the North Caucasus stands out, is being actualized. Optimization of ethnic identification needs and ethnopolitical accents is promising within the framework of the new edition of the «Strategy of State National Policy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2036» (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated November 25, 2025), which has a continuous and at the same time creative character in emphasizing the value vector of national policy.Conclusions. The tasks of strengthening national security in the North Caucasus Federal District are defined, taking into account the current ethnic identification needs and appropriate ethnopolitical accents. These include: solving social problems, improving the quality of life, standard of living, and restructuring the social service system to optimize interethnic relations in the overall context of overcoming socio-cultural and economic problems of the population; analyzing and monitoring the dynamics of interethnic and interreligious processes, as well as determinants and possible vectors of national-cultural, nationalterritorial, national-state self-determination; ensuring ethno-cultural, ethno-linguistic, ethno-political security as a component of national security, taking into account the remaining internal regional and Russian risks, as well as risks of external geopolitical origin, etc.