06.02.2013.

Regional seminar on military education opens

The two-day regional seminar on "Military education and organizational development - challenges for the 21st Century "began today at the Central Military Club. At the seminar, attended by representatives of Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia and Serbia, experiences are shared with the participants the professors of the Royal College of London, Defence College of Oslo and the European Center for Security Studies "George K. Marshall."

At the opening of the seminar attendees were addressed by the Rector of the University of Defence Lt. Gen. prof. Dr. Miodrag Jevtic, who emphasized that the initiative to organize a seminar was launched as part of cooperation of ministries of defense between the Republic of Serbia, the Kingdom of Norway and the UK, in the field of military education, which has lasted for several years now.

- The focus of the seminar military higher education and higher levels of career development officer. The seminar has a quality assurance function of higher levels of education, and I believe that the exposes of prominent representatives of the countries of the region and proven experts from Norway and the UK would contribute to making a joint assessment of where we come from in the organization and implementation of career development officers and which course to take. Let this be a set of incentives and the development of regional cooperation in the field of military education, an opportunity to renew old friendships and creating new, said General Jevtic.

Defence Attaché of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway to Serbia Colonel Esben Os stressed the importance of the seminar for the countries in the region and stressed that the Kingdom of Norway has long provided support for the reform of the defense system and military education in Serbia, because the knowledge and education is the key factor future.

The importance of the two-day seminar was also stressed by the Deputy Dean of the Academy of Defence in London Victoria Same-Taylor. She presented a number of key topics at the seminar, and expressed the hope that participants could openly discuss the challenges they face in bringing professional military education, as well as on future priorities in the field of military education.

Lt. Col. Radoljub Vitorovic from the Ministry of Defence of Montenegro, will present the experience of that Balkan country at the seminar. He pointed out that his own country has no professional military education, but rather compensates by fostering good bilateral relations with partner countries, and that Montenegro has so far sent cadets to training in several countries, most of whom were educated in Serbia.

Dean of Higher Security Studies and Defense Colonel Slobodan Joksimovic explained the importance of the seminar as after a long period of time members of military educational system of the former 6 Yugoslav republics where especially in the exchange of experiences, higher levels of education officers, they have the support of countries which have already had experience.

The representative of Slovenia, Uros Spte, head of the Department of Defence Studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Ljubljana said he considered the seminar a good opportunity to establish cooperation between the universities of countries in the region, and that in two days, participants would be able to find a solution that would maintain a high level of education in these countries.

The objectives of the seminar are to exchange experiences on the organization and implementation of professional military education, especially higher levels of education, in accordance with the modern requirement of the need for an education officers and civilian officials from the structure, as well as exchange views and discussing the possibilities of improving regional cooperation in the field of military education at bilateral and multilateral level.

The seminar was organized jointly by the Military Academy in Belgrade, Department of Defence Studies at King's College (King's College) in London and the University College of Oslo defense.