Analysis of the reform of the Serbian Armed Forces and its impact on organizing the nutrition, with special overview of the army

Abstract

In the studied period, from 1997 to 2013, the Serbian Armed Forces underwent the reform of their organizational structure, namely their organization in armies was discontinued, and the organization in corps was established. Also, their numerical strength was changed. In addition to these changes, along with changes in the names of the countries to which they belonged, their name was changed too. Organizational changes in the Armed Forces encompassed also the reorganization of the quartermaster service, which, within its framework, deals with nutrition of the Armed Forces’ members. The historical-comparative method was used to establish the factors that influenced the reorganization and transformation of the Armed Forces. The application of this method allows not only the review of factors that led to changes in the Armed Forces and the way of their functioning, but also the understanding of the connection between the reform of the Armed Forces and the organizing of their members’ nutrition. The paper discusses the impact of organizational reforms, undergone by the Armed Forces in the 1997–2015 period, on the quality of their members’ nutrition. Reduction of the number of places where food is prepared; outsourcing; change in the nutrition implementation mode depending on the assigned mission; delegating the nutrition planning from the brigade to the battalion level, all show the future trend of the nutrition reform in the Serbian Armed Forces.