Over
the past ten years a number of European countries have
experienced dramatic political, economical, social, or
even cultural changes. 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, intelligence - under the same focus
in time.
The
project National Security and the Future was initiated
in February 1999, in order to fill a gap present in Central
and Southeast Europe, where there are no national or international
journals in the area of national security.
It
is not our ambition to be just another journal on national
security, nor just a local or regional journal. The initial
editorial board consists of people not only from transitional
countries, but also from the USA, the Russian Federation,
Great Britain, Sweden, etc. Their reputation, knowledge
and experience support the need and ambition for a new
approach and consideration of international relations
and national security.
The
stress is not only on international relations and national
security, but also on the future - the one we are facing,
as well as the potential one which may not happen because
political decisions, agreements and processes (deliberately
or accidentally) took one of many possible routes.
In
the formation of political, social and historical events,
intelligence and intelligence assessment play an important
role. Politicians who have access to intelligence reports
rarely express their opinion on the usefulness and value
of these reports. As a rule, political scientists and
historians do not have access to intelligence usage or
available intelligence assessments at the time when poltiical
and historical decisions are made. On the other hand,
intelligence officers do not have the right to judge the
political implementation of collected intelligence data.
Thus,
a crucial link in the formation of political and historical
events is hidden and insufficiently evaluated. We would
like to subject this missing link to analysis and evaluate
its role in the decision-making processes on the national
and international levels.
Therefore,
National Security and the Future will be dedicated
to the advancement and understanding of principles and
practices of intelligence and national security in contemporary
history and foreign policy.
The NSF journal should have manifold purposes:
to research and understand practices of intelligence and
to advance the theory and methodology of intelligence;
to contribute to understanding and research the phenomenon
of national security. We believed that NSF should
have a specific pioneer and educational purpose also -
by opening space for contemplating serious problems of
national security and intelligence in the public of the
Central and Eastern European countries, where great need
for such debates exists. We also want to contribute and
develop the emerging academic study of intelligence as
a distinctive discipline.
Thematically, the journal should be focused on Central
and Eastern Europe, but it will not be just for the public
in those countries. Namely, in the selected and elaborated
topics the emphasis will be on their relevance to the
broader issues of international relations 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 authoritative
authors, which is guaranteed by very international composition
of the Editorial Board.
Editorial
Board. The first meeting of the Editorial Board for
the international journal National Security and the Future
was held in Dubrovnik from the February 26 - 27, 1999.
Participants of the meeting in Dubrovnik were: Gen. Todor
Boyadjiev (Bulgaria), Mr. Oldrich Cerny (Czech Republic),
Prof. Dr. Stevan Dedijer (Sweden, Croatia), Mr. Richard
Kerr (U.S.A.), Prof. Dr. Janos Matus (Hungary), Mr. Miroslav
Međimorec (Croatia), Gen. Leonid Shebarshin (Russian Federation),
Mr. Richard Stolz (U.S.A.) and Prof. Dr. Miroslav Tuđman
(Croatia). Among those who had accepted the invitation
to participate in the project National Security and the
Future but could not attend the meeting in Dubrovnik were:
Doc. W. Agrell (Sweden), Prof. Christopher Andrew (G.
Britain), Mr. Luigi Calligiris (Italy), Dr. Günter Joetze
(Germany) and Mr. Uri Neeman (Israel).
Editorial
Board accepted the following policy.
Language.
National Security and the Future will be published in
English, it will appear quaterly i.e. four issues annually.
Structure.
Each issue of National Security and the Future will
consist of four main parts:
-
Main topic - each issue will be focus to one main
topic which is impotant for strategic-oriented understanding
of the future.
- Case
Studies of main problems and events in transition
countries: Political history and/or history of intelligence.
- Theory
and methodology of national security and intelligence.
Overview and reviews of publications.
The
main Topics. The main topics that the journal will
cover in the near future will be:
- Conflict
resolution - sources, perspectives
- Intelligence
in transition
- Intelligence
and national security in the 21st Century
- Non-national
intelligence collection
- The
future of intelligence services
- Intelligence
support to international organisations (e.g. UN, NATO)
- Covert
action: pluses and minuses for the 21st Century
- Overt
collection of intelligence
- Intelligence
and knowledge management
- Intelligence
and the public
- Inter-relationships
between intelligence and policy makers
- Oversight
in a democratic society
The
publisher of the NSF is St. George Association
- a non-profit, non-governmental scientific association
which gathers scientists and researchers dealing with
the problems of national security and intelligence.
Conflict
resolution is the main topic of the first issue of
the NSF. Theoretically and practically, conflicts
are the central problem of international relations, they
are central objectives of intelligence acitvities and
central motives of political and strategic studies. Today
we are faced with another manifold crisis in Kosovo. That
conflict alread has and will have in the future many consequences
not only on the regional level, but also on the international
level (the role fo the NATO, military doctrine, the European
security system, the role of the United Nations and the
UN Security Council etc.). The nature of conflict resolution
also raises numerous questions about international sovereignty,
human rights, spheres of interest etc.
The
contributions for the first issue of the NSF were
prepared mostly in the autumn of 1999. We would like to
thank all the authors and all the people who suported
this project from the very begining. We would like to
give special thanks to Senator Francesco Cossiga, former
President of the Republic of Italy, for his contribution
to NSF.
We
hope that the general public, professionals and specialist
will accept our Journal as relevant and timely. But we
would also like to open our Journal as a forum for different
ideas and contributions.
Janos
Matus
Miroslav Tuđman
April
2000
