The legal framework for the engagement of the Serbian Armed Forces in emergencies

Abstract

In the period after the world was divided in blocs, the current security issue has been extended to new security risks, challenges and threats, such as armed rebellion, terrorism and organized crime, social instability, economic problems and migration caused by them, environmental degradation, outbreaks of infectious diseases, and other phenomena. Peacetime, so-called 'non-military threats' and the conditions and situations caused by them today are the dominant type of threat to all modern states that have kept the responsibility and central role in achieving the security. Within its legal framework, the Republic of Serbia has qualified the conditions and the situations caused by the so called 'non-military threats' using the terms 'the state of emergency' and 'emergency situations'. Also, the Republic of Serbia and the Serbian Armed Forces, as part of the national security system, are mandated by this framework and allowed to act in order to reduce as much as possible the consequences caused by their occurrence. The paper determines the concepts of the state of emergency and the emergency situation, presents the prerequisites for the functioning of the Republic of Serbia and the Serbian Armed Forces in emergencies, and identifies problems that may affect the timely and joint actions of various entities in emergency situations.