NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE FUTURE

is dedicated to the advancement and understanding of principles and practices
of intelligence and national security in contemporary history and foreign policy

(Editorial, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 2000.)

 

Over the past ten years a number of European countries have experienced dramatic political, economical, social, or even cultural changes. The breath-taking pace of these changes has constrained politicians, intelligence professionals, political scientists and historians to share ideas and exchange views referring to an almost identical period of time. Due to the velocity of the developments - the concept of national security has unified the objects of interest of the different scientific disciplines - history, political science, intelligence - under the same focus in time.

The project National Security and the Future was initiated in February 1999, in order to fill a gap present in Central and Southeast Europe, where there are no national or international journals in the area of national security. It is not our ambition to be just another journal on national security, nor just a local or regional journal. The initial editorial board consists of people not only from transitional countries, but also from the USA, the Russian Federation, Great Britain, Sweden, etc. Their reputation, knowledge and experience support the need and ambition for a new approach and consideration of international relations and national security.

The stress is not only on international relations and national security, but also on the future - the one we are facing, as well as the potential one which may not happen because political decisions, agreements and processes (deliberately or accidentally) took one of many possible routes.

In the formation of political, social and historical events, intelligence and intelligence assessment play an important role. Politicians who have access to intelligence reports rarely express their opinion on the usefulness and value of these reports. As a rule, political scientists and historians do not have access to intelligence usage or available intelligence assessments at the time when poltiical and historical decisions are made. On the other hand, intelligence officers do not have the right to judge the political implementation of collected intelligence data.

Thus, a crucial link in the formation of political and historical events is hidden and insufficiently evaluated. We would like to subject this missing link to analysis and evaluate its role in the decision-making processes on the national and international levels.

Therefore, National Security and the Future will be dedicated to the advancement and understanding of principles and practices of intelligence and national security in contemporary history and foreign policy.

The NSF journal should have manifold purposes: to research and understand practices of intelligence and to advance the theory and methodology of intelligence; to contribute to understanding and research the phenomenon of national security. We believed that NSF should have a specific pioneer and educational purpose also - by opening space for contemplating serious problems of national security and intelligence in the public of the Central and Eastern European countries, where great need for such debates exists. We also want to contribute and develop the emerging academic study of intelligence as a distinctive discipline.
Thematically, the journal should be focused on Central and Eastern Europe, but it will not be just for the public in those countries. Namely, in the selected and elaborated topics the emphasis will be on their relevance to the broader issues of international relations and security. The actual historical moment of these geographical territories and the importance of local events for the wider international relations make virtually any theme selected to relevant for the broader international public.

The actuality of the journal will be attained not only by the selection of relevant topics, but also by authoritative authors, which is guaranteed by very international composition of the Editorial Board.

Editorial Board. The first meeting of the Editorial Board for the international journal National Security and the Future was held in Dubrovnik from the February 26 - 27, 1999. Participants of the meeting in Dubrovnik were: Gen. Todor Boyadjiev (Bulgaria), Mr. Oldrich Cerny (Czech Republic), Prof. Dr. Stevan Dedijer (Sweden, Croatia), Mr. Richard Kerr (U.S.A.), Prof. Dr. Janos Matus (Hungary), Mr. Miroslav Međimorec (Croatia), Gen. Leonid Shebarshin (Russian Federation), Mr. Richard Stolz (U.S.A.) and Prof. Dr. Miroslav Tuđman (Croatia). Among those who had accepted the invitation to participate in the project National Security and the Future but could not attend the meeting in Dubrovnik were: Doc. W. Agrell (Sweden), Prof. Christopher Andrew (G. Britain), Mr. Luigi Calligiris (Italy), Dr. Günter Joetze (Germany) and Mr. Uri Neeman (Israel).

Editorial Board accepted the following policy.

Language. National Security and the Future will be published in English, it will appear quaterly i.e. four issues annually.

Structure. Each issue of National Security and the Future will consist of four main parts:

  • Main topic - each issue will be focus to one main topic which is impotant for strategic-oriented understanding of the future.
  • Case Studies of main problems and events in transition countries: Political history and/or history of intelligence.
  • Theory and methodology of national security and intelligence.
    Overview and reviews of publications.

The main Topics. The main topics that the journal will cover in the near future will be:

  • Conflict resolution - sources, perspectives
  • Intelligence in transition
  • Intelligence and national security in the 21st Century
  • Non-national intelligence collection
  • The future of intelligence services
  • Intelligence support to international organisations (e.g. UN, NATO)
  • Covert action: pluses and minuses for the 21st Century
  • Overt collection of intelligence
  • Intelligence and knowledge management
  • Intelligence and the public
  • Inter-relationships between intelligence and policy makers
  • Oversight in a democratic society

The publisher of the NSF is St. George Association - a non-profit, non-governmental scientific association which gathers scientists and researchers dealing with the problems of national security and intelligence.

Conflict resolution is the main topic of the first issue of the NSF. Theoretically and practically, conflicts are the central problem of international relations, they are central objectives of intelligence acitvities and central motives of political and strategic studies. Today we are faced with another manifold crisis in Kosovo. That conflict alread has and will have in the future many consequences not only on the regional level, but also on the international level (the role fo the NATO, military doctrine, the European security system, the role of the United Nations and the UN Security Council etc.). The nature of conflict resolution also raises numerous questions about international sovereignty, human rights, spheres of interest etc.

The contributions for the first issue of the NSF were prepared mostly in the autumn of 1999. We would like to thank all the authors and all the people who suported this project from the very begining. We would like to give special thanks to Senator Francesco Cossiga, former President of the Republic of Italy, for his contribution to NSF.

We hope that the general public, professionals and specialist will accept our Journal as relevant and timely. But we would also like to open our Journal as a forum for different ideas and contributions.

Janos Matus
Miroslav Tuđman

April 2000 

 


NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE FUTURE

is dedicated to the advancement and understanding of principles and practices of intelligence and national security in contemporary history and foreign policy.

 

Editor-in-Chief (from February 2021):

Assist. Prof. Gordan Akrap

Zagreb, Croatia

 

Editorial Board:

  • Prof.Emeritus Jadranka Lasić-Lazić, University North, Croatia, Deputy Editor-in-Chief
  • Assoc. Prof. Iva Rosanda Žigo, University North, Croatia, Deputy Editor-in-Chief
  • Assoc. Prof. Thomas Wegener Friis, head of the Center for Cold War Studies, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark, Assist. Editor-in-Chief
  • Vedran Matošić, St. George Association, Executive director of the Board, Croatia
  • Prof.Emeritus Mladen Ančić, University of Zadar, Croatia
  • Prof.Dr. Mate Ljubičić, St. George Association, Croatia
  • Prof.Dr. Bojana Lakičević-Đuranović, University of Montenegro, Faculty of Law, Montenegro
  • Prof.Dr. Ivo Lučić, Croatian Institute of History, Zagreb, Croatia
  • Prof.Dr. John Nomikos, Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS), Greece
  • Prof.Dr. Swaran Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
  • Prof.Dr. Iztok Podbregar, University of Maribor, Slovenia
  • Prof.Dr. Shlomo Shpiro, The Europa Institute, Bar Ilan University, Israel
  • Prof.Dr. Žejko Dobrović, Dr. Franjo Tuđman Defence and Security University, Croatia
  • Assoc. Prof. Ante Bralić, University of Zadar, Croatia
  • Assoc. Prof. Maksym Kamenetskyi, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine
  • Assist. Prof. Dražen Barbarić, University of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Assist. Prof. Irena Petrijevčanin, Croatian Defence Academy „dr. Franjo Tuđman“, Zagreb, Croatia
  • Assist. Prof. Przemyslaw Gasztold, War Studies University & Institute of National Remembrance, Poland
  • Major General, Slaven Zdilar, PhD, RACVIAC, Croatia
  • Assist.Prof. Pavle Kalinić, Zagreb, Croatia
  • Damir Bevanda, PhD, University of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Captain (ret.) Ivica Mandić, PhD candidate, St. George Association, Zagreb, Croatia

 

Evaluators (from April 1, 2021):

Prof.Dr. Nikolaj Lazić, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Dr. Dalibor Milanović, Croatian Defence Academy "Dr. Franjo Tuđman"

General (ret.) Dr. Ephraim Lapid, Bar Ilan University, Israel

Prof.Dr. Polona Šprajc, University of Maribor, Slovenia

Prof.Dr. Slavko Vidović, INFODOM, Zagreb, Croatia

Prof. Dr. Zoran Dragišić, University of Belgrade, Serbia

Prof.Dr. Laris Gaiser, Catholic University of Milan, Italy

Dr. Filip Dragović, Institute for security policies, Croatia

Dr. Stjepan Domjanić, Croatian Defence Academy "Dr. Franjo Tuđman"

Dr. Barak Bouks, Bar Ilan University, Israel (from April 18, 2021)

Dr. Ali Madouni, University Mohamed Khider of Biskra, Algeria (from November 7, 2022)

Assist.Prof. Daria Vilkova, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine (from January 8, 2023)


 

Publishers:

St. George Association / Udruga sv. Jurja, 10000 Zagreb, Ulica Nikole Tesle 10, Croatia

Hybrid Warfare Research Institute / Institut za istraživanje hibridnih sukoba, Ulica Nikole Tesle 10, Croatia (from February 2017)

University North / Sveučilište Sjever, Trg dr. Žarka Dolinara 1, 48000 Koprivnica, Croatia (from October 2023)

 

Contact: 

Manuscripts, editorial communications, and books for review should be directed to: 

The National Security and the Future,

St. George Association / Udruga sv. Jurja, 

10000 Zagreb, Ulica Nikole Tesle 10, Croatia;

E-mail: kontakt formular

Published three times per year; in Spring, Summer, and Winter (until the end of 2023)

From January 2024, NSF journal will be published two times per year: Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter.

NSF Online:   http://www.nsf-journal.hr/

                        http://hrcak.srce.hr/nsf

 

National Security and the Future is a refereed journal. Authors should consult the Guidelines for Contributors at the back of the journal before submitting their final draft. The editor cannot accept responsibility for any damage to or loss of manuscripts. Statements and facts or opinion appearing in National Security and the Future are solely those of the authors and do not imply endorsement by the editors or publisher.

Since 2014, National Security and the Future Journal is published three times per year. From January 2024, will be published two times per year as stated above.

National Security and the Future is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

There is no any kind of publication fee, or any other fee, for author(s) and his/her/their institution for articles sent for evaluation neither for articles selected for publishing.

Published articles can be deposited in an institution or other repository of the author's choice without embargo but in a form and with data that was published at National Security and the Future journal.

Submitted articles, but not accepted for publishing, can be freely offered to the other publishers and freely deposited according to the author(s) decision without any embargo.

The National Security and the Future articles are archived as a back-up service at web servers of our web host.

Copyright & Licensing

The author(s), by submitting the article(s) for an evaluation, agree to give the publishing right to the Publisher(s) in a case of a positive review/evaluation. In a case that Publisher(s) accepts to publish the mentioned article, the author(s) transfer by their free will, the copyright to the publisher of the National Security and the Future journal. Author(s) has a right to freely distribute the published article in the form in which it was published with information about the National Security and the Future journal and Publisher(s) necessary for proper citation of the article.

When author(s) agrees to publish the paper in National Security and the Future journal, they simultaneously accept CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

National Security and the Future permits usage of the articles according to the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. More info about this license can be found within this link: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

 


ISSN 1332-4454  (print) 

ISSN 1846-1425 (online)