02.02.2018.
Start of the Professional Advancement of the 7th Class of the Advanced Security and Defence Studies
Ceremony to mark the beginning of education for the students of the 7th Class at the Advanced Security and Defence Studies was held today in the amphitheatre of Division for Simulation and Distant Learning of the University of Defence in barracks “General Jovan Mišković” in Belgrade.
The ceremony was attended by Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin, and the representatives of the Ministry of Defence and Serbian Armed Forces, professors, lecturers and the students of the latest class of ASDS.
Addressing the students, Minister Vulin pointed out that the Advanced Security and Defence Studies would pose questions that they would seek to answer.
- The Advanced Security and Defence Studies will face you with segments of the world that is changing, but not for the better. It is a world in which the security challenges are diverse, different, where asymmetric threats appear in unexpected places, or we have not even known that they were possible. It is a world where the arguments of force are, sadly, heard ever louder and stronger; a world which seeks the answers, asks many questions, but final responses persistently fail to arrive. It is up to you, familiarising yourselves with the highest scientific achievements, listening to the most significant lecturers in their fields of study, not only to educate yourselves but to offer to us, military education and future units where you will work and which you will manage, the answers to the questions where to continue and how – Minister Vulin sent the message. He added that the fact that the world was changing, faced us with challenges and responsibility, not to shrug our shoulders and say that those were the matter out of our power, out of the capability of our response and management, but to fight against the problems that need to be resolved for the sake of our future and the future of our children.
- You who come from other countries, for which I am immensely grateful, you from Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, I wish you to know that you have come to the highest and the most renowned educational institution in our nation and our armed forces. I want you to know that you will have something to learn from the armed forces and the lecturers who have proved themselves by their lives and experiences, who have something to say and from whom you have a lot to learn. We will learn from you as well, and we will never find it hard to share and adopt new knowledge and make it available and vital. Thank you for having confidence in us to spend time with us, to share your knowledge and your experience. Never forget that you are welcome here, that you are guests of a hospitable and good people who know to love and appreciate. Proud and great armed forces will take care of you; the armed forces that are important and powerful, persistent, tough and stubborn; the armed forces one could learn from, these are the armed forces that our adversaries through history and both our friends and enemies respected and admired – the minister of defence pointed out.
He said to the students that a lot was expected from them – discipline, patience and perseverance.
- We expect from you to make us proud just like the previous classes did. The seventh class of the Advanced Security and Defence Studies in its composition, names and experience already represents the pride of this institution, and we are confident that your results will be precisely like that. Our time is the time of incessant learning, continuous advancement and life-long preparations for everything that awaits us. I am glad that it is exactly how you behave, as you continue your career in this exact way, and because you will be of great use in your armed forces and your people – Minister Vulin stressed.
As a former student of the Advanced Security and Defence Studies, Minister Vulin underscored that the school was extremely significant for everyone who in any way dealt with the work in the field of security.
- This is a school that lays significant foundations, a school with the best lecturers in our system, a school which familiarises you with security systems of other countries and of utterly different systems. It is a school with a large educational influence not only in the sense that you will learn, but you will also pass adequate conclusions as well, to observe the experiences of other security systems and to apply it to our system – the minister of defence said.
Speaking about investing in the Military Academy, Minister Vulin noted that owing to the policy of the Government of Aleksandar Vučić, which had been thrifty thus providing surplus resources, at that moment we could invest in the Military Academy.
- The Military Academy will be constructed and furbished in accordance with the highest world standards, and our children will not fall behind any military academy of the world in terms of living and working conditions – Minister Vulin said.
Greeting all the present, Head of the National Defence School Colonel Miroslav Talijan stressed that the expectations were high when it came to that, seventh class. According to him, the students will enrich their knowledge and be given a strong motivation to realise and develop their competence in the field of strategic-political and strategic-military decision making, and resolution of complex security and defence tasks.
The Advanced Security and Defence Studies represent an organisational unit in the National Defence School as the highest level of career advancement for officers and senior officers of the Republic of Serbia. Three foreign students will be among the attenders (one officer from the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one from the Republic of Croatia and one from the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria).
