Scope and Objectives. At the end of 20th century, a number of European countries have seen dramatic political, economical, social, or even cultural changes. Just as russian agressions against Georgia and Ukraine in 21st century. The breath-taking pace of these changes has constrained politicians, intelligence professionals, political scientists and historians to share ideas and exchange views referring to an almost identical period of time. Due to the velocity of the developments - the concept of national security has unified the objects of interest of the different scientific disciplines - history, political science, economy, energy, intelligence - under the same focus in time. 

Hybrid threats and warfare has become the greatest security challenge for NATO allies and EU member states. Countering hybrid threats has become a high priority for NATO and EU. Those emerging challenges should be addressed not only in the purely military realm, but by flexible strategies, combining military, political, economical, energy, media, cyber, and information warfare elements using whole-of-society and comprehensive defence approach. Influence operations (information operations, media operations, time management) become a leading part of hybrid warfare activities, especially by (mis)using freedoms in our democratic societies that does not exist in adversaries’ societies. Russia has been, and still is, main adversary that is planning and conducting active and malign hybrid operations against NATO allies and EU member states. China is also quite close to that position vs EU and NATO. 

A crucial component of hybrid warfare is information warfare. Social networks, diverse internet (dis)information campaigns in traditional and digital media environment are all being utilized more and more as effective weapons to weaponize information and sway various target groups. A new type of influence campaign that makes use of, and widens already existing, vulnerabilities and societal cracks, or creates new ones, is represented by cyber operations, supported by active measures, information and media operations. The influence of various social networks on different target audiences needs to be understood on a preventive level using historical models as well as new and updated academic research findings. Preventing malicious, detrimental influence on election(s) or referendum campaigns in NATO/EU members and allies requires special attention by whole of society.

Area of Western Balkan 6 countries is very sensitive to Russian, Serbian and pro-Russian and pro-Serbian malicious influence/cognitive operations. It also affects the vulnerabilities of economic and social stability, and energy supplies, including gas, oil, and renewable energy platforms, as well as underwater pipelines. New strategies, technologies, and tactics, based on rigorous scientific research and analysis with real-world experience, are needed to make Europe's transport and energy critical infrastructures safe against the threats emanating from hybrid warfare. The realm of cyber warfare is also part of the challenges that must be addressed within these new strategies. 

Therefore, the NSF journal should have manifold purposes: for professional plans, the Journal should do the research and include itself in the debates on methodological problems of intelligence, with scientific plans it should contribute to the establishment and research the phenomenon of Homeland and National security, while the purpose of it to the public should have a specific pioneer and educational dimensions - by opening space for contemplating serious challenges of Homeland and National security concept and intelligence in the public of the Central and Eastern European countries; therefore, on those territories where great need for such debates, and the media that will realise it, exists.

Thematically, the journal should be focused on threats to EU member states, NATO allies and countries that are trying to join Euro-Atlantic organizations. With accent on Central and Eastern Europe, but it will not be just for the public in those territories. Namely, in the selected and elaborated topics the emphasis will be on their relevance to the wider problems of international relations, defense, stabiloty, teritorial integrity, sovergnity, resilience, and security. The actual historical moment of these geographical territories and the importance of local events for the wider international relations make virtually any theme selected to relevant for the broader international public. 

The actuality of the journal will be attained not only by the selection of relevant topics, but also by competent authors which guaranteed by very international composition of the Editorial Board.

Language. National Security and the Future will be published in English (the preferred language) and/or Croatian, in two annual issues.

The thematic fields that the Journal will cover are as follows:

• Conflict resolution - sources, perspectives

• Putin's Russia Grand Strategy - a threat to Europe and World

• Russian aggressions against Ukraine - Lessons Learned & Lessons Identified

• Intelligence

  1. Intelligence in transition

  2. Intelligence, homeland and national security in the 21st Century

  3. Non-national intelligence collection

  4. The future of intelligence communities and services/agencies

  5. Intelligence support to international organizations (e.g. UN, NATO, EU)

  6. Covert action: pluses and minuses for the 21st Century

  7. Overt collection of intelligence

  8. Intelligence and knowledge management

  9. Intelligence and the public

  10. Inter-relationships between intelligence and policy makers

  11. Intelligence communities oversight in a democratic society

• Hybridity of Threats 

• 1. STRATCOM and Hybrid Threats

  2. Hybrid Threats and Climate Change

  3. AI as a Tool against Hybrid threats

  4. Strategic Culture

  5. Information vs Disinformation - fighting the content or the source

  6. Russian Hybrid Threats

  7. Chinese Hybrid Threats

  8. Resilience of societies and states (political, economical, energy, social, health, informational, security, intelligence) (with special emphasis on Western Balkan 6 countries) 

  9. Malicious influences to the rise of Radicalism, Political Extremism, Violence, and Terrorism

  10. Advantages, limitations, ethical questions, and legal consequences of counter-hybrid threats activities

  11. Key Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resiliency

• Women in Security and Defense Science

• Military Science related topics

• Indo-Pacific Stability and Security

• Resilience of Seas: Arctic, Barents, Atlantic, Baltic, Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Black Sea including Danube river

Publishing Schedule and Terms

The first volume of the NSF was published in September 1999. 

Since 2024, we are publishing two numbers per year. 

From the 2025 we will start with Online-first publishing. With that, we will considerably reduce the publication time in full online edition of the NSF Journal. After Plagiarism and AI detection check, and positive reviews are done, we will publish those papers as an Online-first publication with their unique DOI.

The papers should focus on the main topics or should fit other thematic fields of the Journal interest. They should reflect original research, new interpretations, or personal professional experience. Papers should be delivered in English and/or Croatian. 

Manuscripts should be prepared according to Guidelines for Authors.

All manuscripts undergo initial check, in order to asses whether the manuscripts comply with the scientific, professional, and editorial standards of the Journal, and if it fits in the objectives and themes of the Journal.

Those manuscripts that pass this initial scrutiny, are sent to double blind review that does not reveal the identity of either the author or the reviewer. Therefore, the authors are asked to remove from the text and list of references, as well as from the properties of the electronic document, all the information that can reveal their identity (name, project information,

acknowledgements).

All manuscripts submitted in English language require prior proofreading and editing by native speaker or professional editor to eliminate grammatical or spelling errors and possibly in writing style.

After receiving the reviewers' reports, the author(s), in addition to the new version of the manuscript, submit to the Editorial board a cover letter stating which reviewers' proposals were accepted and in what way, and which were not (with explanation and argumentation).

Detailed evaluation procedure is available here: See our Guidelines for Authors