Abstract:
This study addresses the financial sustainability of social security systems not merely as a problem of
social policy or public finance but as a multidimensional issue bearing on the long-term strategic
capacity of states. Its principal aim is to analyse, within a holistic framework, the relationship between
social security sustainability and state capacity, domestic stability, foreign policy effectiveness and
geostrategic power. The study adopts an interdisciplinary approach that brings together public finance,
labour economics, political science, public administration, demography, health economics,
international relations and strategic studies. Methodologically, it employs a theory-building,
explanatory qualitative design in which official statistics, actuarial indicators and international indices
are analysed as supporting numerical evidence through document analysis. The experience of the
Social Security Institution in Türkiye is selected as the principal field of analysis. The study develops
a Geostrategic Social Security Theory, which proposes a causal chain linking social security to
geostrategic power through economic security, human security, societal resilience, institutional trust,
state capacity, domestic stability and foreign policy effectiveness. The findings indicate that financially
strong social security systems nourish social trust, institutional legitimacy and economic resilience,
and that this accumulated strength widens the scope for domestic stability and foreign policy
manoeuvre. The study further opens to discussion a Strategic Active Ageing Model, resting on the
principle of voluntariness and differentiated according to the nature of working life, together with a
welfare-oriented pension approach. The results reveal that social security institutions should be
regarded as essential components not only of the welfare state but also of strategic state-building.
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