02.11.2017.
Minister Vulin: Security Challenges that We Are Facing Are Bringing Us Together
Today, in the Guard Club in Topčider, a two day international scientific gathering started titled “Influence of changes in the international environment on the preparation and execution of operations”. The gathering is organised by the Department for Operatics of the National Defence School of the Military Academy under the slogan “Think globally, act locally”. Presenting the guests, Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin pointed out that they had come to the institution which made us very proud.
- You have come to the University of Defence, which educates our best, the bravest. As much as it is possible for an educational system to create a soldier, warrior, officer, our educational system manages to create them. I say “as much as possible”, because it does not suffice merely to educate a man who loves his country, a man who defends his country. He needs to feel it and he has to show it – the minister of defence said adding that throughout the history of Serbian people there had never been a lack of people who demonstrated how much they loved their country.
He reminded that throughout the history Serbia had never lacked in people who were exceptional and at the highest level in their work, noting that it was very difficult to use the word “work” with the word “military”, since Serbian people had never considered it to be work, but a duty, choice and the highest value.
-Today, you will talk about and discuss security challenges, the changed environment. It is good thing for us to admit that the world has changed, for the worse. The security challenges that we face are somehow bringing us together regardless of our size. Just like no man is an island, no country can think anymore that it is sufficiently strong, sufficiently organised, numerous, rich to independently deal with the security challenges that are everywhere around us- the minister of defence said and added that it was the matter of challenges that were most often asymmetrical and almost always unpredictable.
He emphasised that when it came to contemporary challenges we were no longer capable of dealing with them using something that we had used to know and what we learned, and that we were definitely not capable of dealing with them alone. The minister expressed his satisfaction with the fact that a large number of lecturers from abroad participated at the gathering “because it means that we all understand that we are on the same side”.
-The evil we face, the evil that we see on the streets of major cities, the evil that we see in the ideology and idea of hatred has to unite us. There is simply no other choice and in this fight we all have the same role, regardless of the size, strength and riches of a country in question, because the evil that we face makes no difference. It does not differentiate between wealth and religion, the evil that we face recognises us and finds us whether we pretend that it does not exist or not – the minister said underlying that Serbian people had never failed to recognise the evil, and call it by its true name and confront it, so that we cannot act differently in the present.
- Thank you for being here today, I am looking forward to the results of your work, the benefits that our armed forces will have from it and our society as a whole – the minister of defence concluded wishing the guests from abroad pleasant time in Serbia. Head of the National Defence School Colonel Miroslav Talijan established that today’s gathering had exceptional significance for development of security and defence system of our country and the achievement of their effective partnership in the function of peace.
Colonel Talijan pointed out that 53 works that had been received, were included in the compendium, and that among the guests there were eminent lecturers from our country and abroad, so that there was no doubt that in the following two days there was going to be a serious and studious discussion on the influence of changes in the international environment on the preparation and execution of operations.
Rector of the University of Defence Major General Mladen Vuruna presented the historical evolution of the military education and the new organisational structure of the youngest state university in Serbia.
On that occasion, he pointed out that the pillars of each educational establishment were programmes of study, students and teachers adding that on that day there were 39 accredited programmes of study and slightly more than 400 lecturers at the University of Defence.
The opening of the international event was attended by Chief of General Staff General Ljubiša Diković, State Secretary in the Ministry of Defence Aleksandar Živković and the Head of the Military Academy Major General Goran Zeković.
Contemporary conflicts are characterised by unpredictability, asymmetricity and transnational character, so the changes in operational environment have generated certain influence on the preparation and execution of operations. Today’s conflicts and crisis of local, regional and global character, as well as the global tendencies of certain states and organisations have contributed to making the issues of analyses of operational environment a basis for expert and scientific discussion.
International scientific gathering “Influence of changes in the international environment on the preparation and execution of operations” is being organised for the purpose of projecting strategic trends and analyses of the influence of modern operational environment on the preparation and execution of operations, identification of key dimensions of the operational environment significant for the execution of operations at strategic, operational and tactical level.
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