What is first of all stated in the article is structural crisis in the systems of both international and national security and threats of the 21st century. In this connection the author, basing himself on recent state documents in this sphere, in particular on the Concept of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, affirmed by D.A.Medvedev on the 12th of July, 2008, as well as on subsequent statements of Russia’s President, raises the question of the need to consider anew the methodological and conceptual foundations of national and international security, to re-estimate the resources and mechanisms of its guaranteeing, to clearly establish the priorities in internal and external policy. The article contains analysis of such key notions as security, development, national identity, globalization, competitiveness, risks, challenges and threats, national interests. As a methodological approach adequate for the research of the problem of national and international security, S.V.Kortunov proposes for application the approach, in its time worked out by the methodological school of G.P.Shchedrovitzky, preferences and efficiency of which approach have been more than once demonstrated.