Slovenia and national security

Abstract

The author of this article helped to develop the basic security and strategic positions of the Republic of Slovenia. Recently he worked together with other creators of strategic documents ‐ The National Security Strategy and The Defence Strategy. Experiences from this work and associated literature studied while formulating these documents prompted him to write on the national security environment. This article describes the geostrategic background within the context of historical fact, the development and the position of Slovenia's security policy associated with the European and Euro‐Atlantic security architecture and Slovenia's principal contributions to stability in South East Europe. It also analyses the role of collective security and collective defence and predicts Slovenia's invitation to join NATO at the Prague Summit in 2002. In a potentially unstable security environment Slovenia cannot afford to stand aside without active engagement by playing a role in European and Euro‐Atlantic security policy. In short, true security is developed through the spectrum of the security space, the union of three different security aspects. Finally, after 11 September 2001, Slovenia responded to the Common War Against Terrorism by passing a declaration in its parliament enabling the nation to provide security, jurisdictional and defence support to the anti‐terrorist coalition.