engleski

DEFENCE PLANNING IN CROATIA

Defense planning can be defined as a comprehensive process of defining, achieving, and sustaining defense capabilities at optimum levels. Thus, it is about the operationalization of policies and strategies within the framework of the primary state function – defense. The complexity, duration of execution, and amount of invested public resources required to accomplish planned procedures are the reasons for political disputes not only in Croatia. Does Croatia manage to build a credible, autonomous, and effective defense planning system? The analysis of Croatian defense capabilities and assumed requirements in the given strategic context shows the need to improve the existing defense planning system. Missing or deficient defense capabilities were identified in all domains and forms of warfare. Therefore, contemporary solutions enabling interoperability within NATO and the EU require a holistic analytical approach to Croatian defense planning. According to available resources, this paper is the first attempt to produce a scientific paper to analyze defense planning in Croatia’s national defense system. There are numerous professional and scientific papers in foreign sources discussing defense planning in national and international frameworks but, generally, not related to defense planning in Croatia. The emphasis should be on autonomous, national considerations on defense function, based on the existing state’s strategic context – considering actual security circumstances and its instruments of power at disposal. To date, this has been based on the mechanical and procedural implementation of the elements and phases of the defense planning process – however, with unsatisfactory results. The research revealed the need to rethink the fundamentals of Croatia’s unique strategic context, which is understandable given the lack of historic institutional experience. This study considers the existing framework of Croatian defense planning and recommends its modernization, with organizational, financial, and legal consequences.

Croatia, defense capabilities, defense planning, strategic context

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