Cluster Analysis as a Tool for Strategic Analysis at the State Level

The article presents the evolution of the idea of approach to conducting strategic analysis of the state’s environment, used to assess its functioning in the existing and forecasted conditions, which can also be used in the analysis conducted at lower levels of administration. The author presents one of the methods of strategic analysis used in the process of strategic planning in the field of national security. This method can also be successfully used when designing a defence strategy or police development strategy, as it precedes the process of formulating objectives and action concepts. According to the author, the advantages of the proposed method called cluster analysis are its universality, transparency and simplicity of application. The proposed method was preceded by reflections on the issues of strategic analysis related to the current practice of strategic planning in Poland, as well as similar to the presented taxonomic method, to finally focus the reader’s attention on cluster analysis, a mathematical method of data grouping, which can be a proposal to conduct strategic analysis at the level of the state and its institutions.