Melkonyan A.Z. The place of the category of “national interests” within the system of similar legal categories

Abstract: This article examines the category of “national interests” from the position of determination of the place of the latter within the framework of other categories and notions that are often similar in content. The author gives attention to the content of the notion “national interests”, which is greatly influenced by the perceptions on the correlation between objective and subjective factors in formation and realization of interests. Analysis is conducted on the link between “national interests”, state interests, public interests, and interests of ethnic community. It is noted that the term “national interests” is used in the context of definition of national security. The author therefore presents and explores various interpretations and points of view. As a result of the conducted research, the author concludes that “national interests” “per se” have a common public nature with the state, public, private, or ethnic interests, but unlike the latter, they hierarchically hold a higher position. Moreover, the “national interests”, having the larger scale of a mechanism of protection, need to be concretized.

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