Војно дело (Jan 2020)
Comprehensive defense and strategic culture from a human perspective
Abstract
The problem framework of the paper indicates that in the period of globalization of international relations, there have been changes in the thinking and practice of the state's defense function as a military activity. An indicator of these changes is recognized in the development and implementation of the strategic concept of comprehensive defense, which deviates from the traditional logic of the state's defense function as the logic of military power. Considering the mentioned problem, the subject of the research is focused on the questions why and how the logic of the defense function has changed and how these changes affect the strategic concept of defense and the strategic culture of the states. The paper starts from the thesis that the civilizational development of a human has conditioned a change in the values that the state defends, as well as the nature of the phenomena that endanger those values, which has resulted in changes in the logic of the state's defense function, its strategic concept and strategic culture. In proving this thesis, the analogy of the defense functions of a human and the state is used. Namely, the paper considers how the complex nature of a human, as a biological and conscious being, shapes their defense mechanism, and by knowing what the object of human defense is and how a human defends that object, it is possible, by analogy, to draw conclusions on the same issues of the defense function of the state. The paper concludes that the defense function of the state, until recently, was based on those values and defense behavior of a human that was characteristic of their natural state, i.e. on survival and aggressive behavior. However, in recent decades, the civilizational development of a human and society has changed the priorities in the values that the state defends, as well as the nature of the phenomena that endanger those values. As a result, the state's defense behavior has changed. Namely, in modern global relations, in addition to survival, the quality of life imposes as another vital value and the state's defense interest. On the other hand, in strategic relations between states, non-military phenomena of endangering their defense interests are gaining in importance. In response to these changes, the strategic concept of defense is based on comprehensive defense, i.e. on the logic of integrating military power with other elements of national power. In this way, the strategic culture of the state, which has so far been narrowly understood as a "military culture" or "culture of the use of force", is gradually changing.
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