ECONOMIC SECTORS OF STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE TO THE NATIONAL SECURITY. A CASE OF POLAND

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to properly define the economic sectors of strategic importance to the national security and to evaluate the state’s tools which protect this security. The paper’s methodology is based on two analyses; the former focusing on instruments which are applied by the state in order to control certain fields of the economy, and the latter investigating economic sectors in terms of concentration, impact on the state security and integration with other sectors. The paper also defines the criteria which helped to identify sectors which have strategic importance to the national security, i.e. production and supply of electric energy; extraction and supply of natural gas; extraction, distribution and storage of liquid propellants, telecommunications, banking industry; banknotes and documents’ production (together with related IT solutions) and military industry. The article leads to the conclusion that these sectors are strategically important to the national security. However, there is still a lack of coherent and complete legal regulations that would protect the national security interest related to the part of the economy represented by the analyzed sectors and companies.