The article presents public trust in institutions, especially in military, in theoretical and empirical perspective. Namely, today almost as a rule the military boasts a high level of public trust throughout the world. The Slovenian Armed Forces are also among the most trusted institutions in the country. A comparative analysis of the public trust in the military in other countries, however, shows that the level of trust in the Slovenian military is below the global average. In this article, the level of trust in the Slovenian Armed Forces is presented and compared with the public trust in the military in other countries. The article presents the concepts of trust of Almond and Verba, Inglehart, Banfield and other authors, and discusses the level of trust in the military in Slovenia through these concepts. The analysis shows that several factors diminish trust in the military in Slovenian society: from a lack of knowledge and little interest in the military, defense and security matters, to dissatisfaction with political processes.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33231197
The frequency, scope and intensity of natural disasters are increasing, and so too are the number of victims, related deaths and the amount of economic damage. The increasing frequency of disasters often overwhelms civilian management structures and demands the engagement of the military. This has generated new problems and controversies. However, mainstream scholarship in this field has so far failed adequately to address civil-military relations in disaster management. This article highlights the issue and addresses the various arguments used to advocate or reject military involvement in disaster management: militarisation, utilitarian, security-strategic, functional-humanitarian and rejection-isolation arguments. This epistemological and ontological approach identifies, depicts and classifies the arguments. It also identifies various controversies that accompany military engagement in disaster management as a basis for future research into civil-military relations in this field.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33282909
This article analyzes the development of civil-military cooperation in Slovenian armed forces and their engagement in conflict and post-conflict areas. It explores how has it evolved from relatively poorly planned and unorganized attempts to a more structured and better coordinated ‘business’ of a small state in fragile societies. The relationship between the Slovenian military and Slovenian civilian experts from the perspective of ‘being forced to work together’ within the stabilization efforts in Kosovo and Afghanistan is the main focus of this article. The article’s findings, built on interviewing and surveying of Slovenian military commanders and civilian experts, are relevant for a better understanding of small states’ behavior in international relations and sociology of the military in conflict and post-conflict zones.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33439837
Inter-organizational cooperation within national counterterrorism communities has improved since 9/11, yet some disturbing difficulties have also been reported. This article explores the strengths and weaknesses of inter-organizational cooperation, the potential opportunities for improvement and the threats in the case of weak cooperation using a sample of 100 counterterrorism experts. The results of a quantitative SWOT analysis reflect a deep division between the strengths and weaknesses of inter-organizational cooperation that strongly affects the extent to which emerging opportunities to improve it are being undertaken. The paper proposes a three-dimensional strategy to improve cooperation that focuses on interactive, procedural and analytical measures
COBISS.SI-ID: 32034653
The article analyses the casualty aversion among the Slovenian society considering three dimensions; namely the histo-political, the socio-demographic and the cultural dimension. The Slovenian public opinion survey show a continuously strong risk aversion among the Slovenians therefore the purpose of the article is: 1) establish how can be strong risk aversion explained by selected dimensions; 2) identify what part of the population is most risk aversive. Results reveal an existence of a cultural pattern safety bubble vs. risk awareness. As the risk aversion model reveals the Slovenian society present a safety bubble, with strong risk aversion and very narrow selection of activities worth making sacrifices.
COBISS.SI-ID: 31879005
Drawing on the results of a textual analysis of the Regional Plan, a survey of the inhabitants and interviews with representatives of the institutions located within the area of greatest potential threat, the authors established the extent to which the population and institutions are prepared for an evacuation in the event of a disaster at Krško Nuclear Power Plant. The analysis reveals that, despite planning, communicating and training, almost three quarters of the population living within a three-kilometer radius remain unfamiliar with the locations of the reception centers; and two thirds of them are unfamiliar with the evacuation routes. As far as the institutions are concerned, the level of preparedness is also low due to a fatalistic attitude (‘if the disaster occurs there will be no time to evacuate’), poor nuclear disaster planning, the low attendance of personnel at training sessions, poor coordination, and scarce attention and resources devoted to the management of a possible disaster. Several recommendations are listed by the authors in order to improve the level of preparedness.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33131357
Contemporary military organizations have undergone important changes in terms of values and expected performance in multinational environments. Military leaders were the first to adapt to the changes, since they present core of military profession. This article identifies professional skills and personal characteristics of contemporary military leaders, based on cross-national perceptions of Italian and Slovenian service-members. Both key findings indicate a cultural gap between the traditional masculine, hierarchical and the flexible, culturally open military organization.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33019997
Variables from the Slovenian Public Opinion Surveys on National and International Security (from 1990 to 2012) were tested against the basic postulates of the Political Realist, Liberal, Constructivist and Critical Security theoretical paradigms. A model was developed in which the general theoretical concepts (expressed through attitudes towards threats, values, security concepts/policies, security mechanisms/instruments) are complemented with variables from the public opinion surveys in order to analyze the general public’s propensity towards these various theoretical paradigms. The analysis reveals that the attitude of the Slovenian public to the selected security issues can be best explained by Critical Security theories, and also to a lesser extent by Liberal and Constructivist theories; by contrast, traditional Political Realism offers little explanatory potential.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33177949
The importance of getting the job done is taking over our personal lives and causing a potential work-family conflict. There are some institutions that have traditionally placed high demands on their members and have been termed 'greedy institutions'. This article analyses the relationship between two greedy institutions - the family and the military - considering the demands they both place on their members. The article strives to establish which one of them is greedier and consequently responsible for a potential work-family conflict. The in-depth analysis is based on the findings of 10 years' research among service members of the Slovenian Armed Forces and a sample of their families. The results indicate that: (1) both the family and the military might be greedy institutions, although especially during deployment the greediness of the military outweighs that of the family; (2) the contemporary military organization does not only require service members' loyalty, but the whole family's support; (3) Slovenian military families remain highly supportive, regardless of military demands; (4) there are no significant differences in balancing work/family between genders (p = .119), with women reporting less work-family conflict than men (p = .041) and women feeling more support for their deployment from their family and friends than men.
COBISS.SI-ID: 32205917
This article is based on the results of longitudinal research on the motivations and expectations of members of the Slovenian Armed Forces participating in peace operations from 2003 to 2009. The analysis is based on three main approaches. The first is to distinguish between two groups of soldiers: those deployed to missions abroad on a voluntary basis, and those deployed to missions by order. The second approach is to distinguish between those deployed for the first time, and those who have already participated in peace support operations (PSOs) before. The third approach aims at distinguishing between three types of soldiers' motivation for PSOs according to Battistelli's typology. The importance of the different groups of motivation would to a certain degree also vary depending on the national culture, organizational culture and the individual soldier, as well as the time at which the survey was conducted: prior to deployment, during deploymentor after returning home
COBISS.SI-ID: 30121821