9 Sodobni vojaški izzivi, maj 2012 – 14/št. 1
Contemporary Military Challenges, May 2012 – 14/No. 1
EDITORIAL
Branimir Furlan
Dear readers,
Ten years after the decision has been made on a gradual cancellation of conscription 
and the formation of professional armed forces complemented by voluntary reserve, 
questions occurred how successful the professionalization of the Slovenian Armed 
Forces had been. Has the objective set with the professional armed forces project 
(PROVOJ) been attained or is the professionalization, as one of the authors in this 
issue claims, only a path and never the end state – a path to the establishment of the 
profession of arms.
Today, the Slovenian Armed Forces became what it has been planned to become – 
predominantly professional armed forces. How close or how far is the Slovenian 
Armed Forces from the profession of arms and what are its characteristics and chal-
lenges? These are only a few of the questions we attempted to answer in the present 
issue – the questions which will have to be answered by the officer and NCO corps. 
Those two groups of people which are perhaps satisfied with the fact that we consti-
tute nothing but one more group of state officials in public administration, or maybe 
wish to build the profession of arms – such with identifiable relations, characteristic 
of a military organisation, and organisational culture, but mainly with explicit care 
and responsibility towards expert authority. A profession with identifiable military 
intelligentsia – such possessed by other social spheres, such as health care, which, in 
addition to undeniable expert authority, has also managed to establish a large degree 
of immunity against politics.
How close we are to finding the answers to the questions about today’s military 
professionalism and profession is also evident from the messages the authors have 
provided in this issue’s articles. We in the editorial board admit to have had greater 
DOI:10.33179/BSV.99.SVI.11.CMC.14.1.00
10 Sodobni vojaški izzivi/Contemporary Military Challenges
ambitions and expectations regarding the responsiveness of Slovenian Armed Forces 
members. Indeed, the response can be one of the indicators showing the situation 
after ten years.
Igor Kotnik based his article Professionalization of the Slovenian Armed Forces – a 
goal or a path on the project Transition to Professional Armed Forces Complemented 
with Contractual Reserve (PROVOJ) which started in 2003. The author defines 
today’s situation and wonders how we should continue in the given circumstances 
and with the restrictions he divides into nine thematic challenges.
In his article Military profession and a professional officer yesterday, today and 
tomorrow Viktor Potočnik tries to answer the questions how the terms profession 
of arms and professional officer are defined today and how the Slovenian Armed 
Forces should tackle the question of profession of arms and professional officer 
development.
The article by Mojca Pešec and Uroš Krek Can the process of professional military 
education create military strategists presents the authors’ views of the education 
programmes for military strategists in Slovenia from the theoretical and practical 
point of view. The authors also substantiate the need for more intensive and better 
quality strategic theory study programmes.
Slovenian military history tradition and military history memory were discussed by 
Vladimir Prebilič and Jelena Juvan in their article (Non)existence of Slovenian 
military identity, where they established who in fact was fit to define Slovenian 
military tradition and how it would be strengthened in the future.
Žarko Henigman and Anže Rode claim that the main purpose of their article entitled 
Guidelines for the development of 21st century intelligence and security activities 
was to analyse the functioning of intelligence and security sector in the Republic of 
Slovenia in the field of defence and to propose several solutions for a more rational 
and better quality performing of the mission, adapted to new challenges.
In the article Fire support management systems in modern armed forces Jurij Jurtela 
highlights the importance of the development of such systems at a national level and 
their interoperability with fire support management systems of other countries to 
provide an effective joint effort in the international environment.
Dear readers of Contemporary Military Challenges, the aim of this thematic issue is 
to once again motivate you to think about and take part in the development of new 
contributions with topical military and defence subjects.
Branimir Furlan