DEVELOPMENT OF THE SECURITY ENVIRONMENT: A CONCEPTUAL OSINT MODEL AND MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

The main purpose of this study is to develop theoretical and conceptual provisions that reveal the essence and mechanisms of security environment development, as well as the role of OSINT and management in this process. The article substantiates the author’s approach to interpreting the management of security environment development. Within this framework, the security environment is understood as a condition of human, organizational, societal, and state activity in which real threats exist and the consequences of their impact or counteraction are manifested. The authors argue that the security environment can be conventionally divided into two levels: unsafe and safe, and propose qualitative criteria for this differentiation. Such division enables understanding of development as an orderly and purposeful transition of the environment to a qualitatively safer state. Accordingly, the development of the security environment is defined as a process of change ensuring its transition to a more secure condition and reproducing its qualitative properties in line with the needs of actors operating within it. The article substantiates that OSINT represents a form of security activity (a technological process) involving the search, analysis, and transformation of open-source information into targeted intelligence. A structural model of OSINT is proposed, consisting of systemic organizational and technological elements and an action algorithm that together form a unified technological process. OSINT is used to obtain targeted information about threats or their sources within the security environment through detection mechanisms. The authors propose a theoretical and conceptual model of OSINT utilization in security environment development and management, integrating the key components of this process. The research contributes to the theoretical and practical understanding of the development of national and global security environments and may be useful for scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and public officials, particularly in the context of the russian–Ukrainian war.