Slovenian Youth and Military Profession 1997

The research of the attitude of the Slovenian youth towards the military profession stems from the need of the Slovenian Armed Forces to become acquainted with the readiness to perform the military profession/profession of that part of the young population from which potential candidates for professional soldiers and higher education of future military professionals come. The starting point from which the researchers proceeded was above all the fact that in Slovenia, after independence, there were processes characteristic of all newly formed countries, which in the period of independence possessed a certain armed force and which also used it in armed conflicts. Even after Slovenia's independence, Slovenia maintained the compulsory replenishment of armed forces with soldiers, but the need for sufficiently educated and trained personnel far exceeded the supply on the labour market. The need for highly qualified military personnel in the Slovenian Armed Forces is increasing in the context of the process of Slovenia's rapprochement with Euro-Atlantic security integrations, which is accompanied by a high-intensity and multi-layered functional, structural and organisational transformation of the Slovenian Armed Forces. However, the monitoring of young people's motivation for military professions so far has shown that, in the consciousness of Slovenian youth, the military profession still does not represent a competitive and truly attractive path for the realization of professional aspirations and the achievement of social recognition. The practical purpose of the research is to study the subjective and objective factors that encourage young people to decide for a military profession or prevent them from making such a decision, and to obtain concrete data on the motivation of young people in Slovenia for military professions. The research thus presents an analysis of young people's desires for military careers, attitudes towards security, homeland, world peace and threats in the modern world.