Strategic planning: A transdisciplinary analysis of Ukraine's experience for states with high security risks
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58594/rtest.v6i3.146Keywords:
Strategic planning, security and defence, multidomain operations, capability-based planning, risk management, resilience, security governanceAbstract
The transformation of the international security environment has highlighted the need to reconsider traditional approaches to strategic planning. The purpose of this study is to conduct a transdisciplinary analysis of Ukraine's experience in strategic planning during full-scale war and to identify conceptual approaches, institutional mechanisms, and practical lessons that can be adapted by states facing high levels of contemporary security risks. In this research, strategic planning represents the process of strategy development as a course of action that orchestrates strategic ends, ways, and means in order to accomplish higher national political objectives. For Ukraine, the latter were consolidated exclusively into the preservation of Ukrainian national statehood and the creation of conditions for enduring and just peace. The research employs a qualitative methodology based on comparative analysis, systems analysis, institutional analysis, and synthesis of contemporary academic literature on defence planning, capability development, multidomain operations, and strategic resource management. The findings demonstrate that effective strategic planning should be understood as an adaptive governance system integrating strategic security environment analysis, capability-based and risk-oriented planning, multidomain operations, strategic resource governance, whole-of-government and whole-of-society coordination, and international interoperability. Based on these findings, the study proposes the Transdisciplinary Strategic Planning Framework for High-Risk States, which integrates six mutually reinforcing dimensions into a unified analytical model. The study argues that Ukraine's wartime experience should be regarded not only as a national case of defence adaptation but also as a valuable source of transferable strategic principles for countries confronting military, hybrid, cyber, and transnational security threats.
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