STATE DEFENSE CAPABILITY AS AN OBJECT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION UNDER THE RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Abstract

The article is devoted to conceptualizing state defense capability as an independent object of public administration under the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI). The relevance of the study stems from the fact that generations of large generative models change faster than legislators and government officials manage to respond, while the concepts of "state defense capability," "defense," and "national security" are largely used as synonyms in the scholarly literature, which complicates forming a clear subject of public administration in this field and delineating authority among subjects of the security and defense sector. The article aims to conceptualize state defense capability as an object of public administration and to determine its correlation with adjacent categories under the proliferation of AI technologies. The study employs the systems approach, the comparative method, and content analysis of scholarly and legal sources. Scholarly approaches to interpreting defense capability, defense, and national security have been systematized. Criteria for their delineation have been substantiated. The dual role of artificial intelligence has been identified – as a tool for enhancing defense capability and as a source of new asymmetric threats. The managerial implications of the temporal asymmetry between the AI technology renewal cycle and the rule-making cycle have been characterized. The proposed conceptualization has been juxtaposed with alternative scholarly positions. The novelty consists in substantiating state defense capability as an independent object of public administration, distinct from defense and national security, whose subject boundary is defined by a set of governable – rather than merely natural or unconditional – factors of state capacity. The practical significance lies in the applicability of the results to improving policy documents in the field of defense policy and the digital transformation of Ukraine’s security and defense sector.