Chesnokov A. State External Economic Security under conditions of the European Integration of Ukraine

This thesis deals with theoretical and practical aspects of ensuring external economic security of Ukraine under conditions of its European integration. The nature of the state external economic security has been explored, its place, role and importance for the general system of the national security as well as its linkages to other components of the national security has been researched and identified. Special attention has been paid to the nature of main factors and challenges to the state external economic security. The separate analysis has been provided for the current state and tendencies in the foreign economic activity of Ukraine in the context of ensuring its external economic security and maintaining its course towards the European Union membership. The author has proposed the methodology of assessing the external economic security and demonstrated its applicability with examples of the comparative analysis of Ukraine's export structure and with the usage of the integral coefficient of the external economic security. As a result it is stated that in the long-term perspective, the most positive effect from Ukraine's European integration will be achieved due to the development of high technologies and growth of Ukraine's economic competitiveness as factors of ensuring the state external economic security. Priorities of ensuring the state external economic security in line with Ukraine's integration into the European Union have been highlighted in this paper. It is feasible to achieve them with the development of a complex of relevant steps and arrangements to be implemented at the preparatory and initial stages of Ukraine's integration to the European Union (the establishment of the free trade zone).