11 
© Author(s) 2008. This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons 
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-nc-nd/4.0/)
	 	 Sodobni	vojaški	izzivi,	oktober	2022	–	24/št.4
	 	 Contemporary	Military	Challenges,	October	2022	–	24/No.	4
The year is slowly but steadily coming to an end. The time is approaching when 
we will take stock of the work we have done, make plans for the year ahead and 
formulate new ideas. Contemporary Military Challenges will enter an important 
year. In autumn 2023, we will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication 
of the first issue, which was back in 1999 titled the Slovenian Armed Forces Bulletin. 
There have been several important anniversaries associated with this publication 
issued by the General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, and each time we wanted 
to mark them differently. However, they always included statistics. It is good to 
know that 580 articles have been written during the entire lifetime of the publication, 
not including editorials and book reviews.
The articles have been written by 745 authors, half of which came from the Slovenian 
Armed Forces and 60 from the Ministry of Defence. Additionally, 190 other authors 
were from Slovenia and 131 from abroad.
Ever since 2008, our ambition has been to become better, more visible, of higher 
quality and more relevant. We have introduced a peer-review process, which is very 
important in the making of the publication and provides an anonymous review of the 
texts, thus helping authors to achieve better results. This has resulted in 391 papers 
between 2008 and 2022. Each paper was peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers. If 
their assessments differed, a third reviewer was involved. The final assessment of the 
paper was always discussed at the Editorial Board. The Editorial Board has changed 
over the years and has grown in number. In 2022, the Editorial Board includes 20 
members, eight Slovenian and twelve foreign. 
The statistics show that the quality of the contributions has gradually increased. In 
2009, 2010, 2012 and 2015, more than half of the papers were professional, while in 
EDITORIAL
Liliana Brožič
CONTEMPORARY MILITARY 
CHALLENGES – SECOND QUARTER
DOI:10.33179/BSV.99.SVI.11.CMC.24.4.00
 12 Sodobni vojaški izzivi/Contemporary Military Challenges
all other years the balance gradually shifted towards scientific papers. Since 2017, 
professional articles have been more an exception, while the proportion of scientific 
articles has averaged above 80%. The ambition of the Editorial Board has always 
been to have the publication indexed in international databases that ensure greater 
visibility, and connectivity, and a high profile of the ideas and results of the authors’ 
work. International databases are becoming increasingly demanding, paying more 
and more attention to the quality of the papers, the editing, the quality indicators 
that apply to editors and reviewers, the publications’ websites and, of course, their 
printed versions. The most important criterion among all these is whether the papers 
and authors in Contemporary Military Challenges are also cited in the works of 
other experts and scholars who publish their papers in the most reputable scientific 
journals.
The Editorial Board of Contemporary Military Challenges strives to keep abreast 
of trends dictated by international databases. This is mainly due to authors who 
persevere in their research, believe in their work and are convinced that the exchange 
of opinions, views and ideas in synergy with other authors in the international 
environment brings added value to all. Such mindset is what motivates and leads 
into a promising future. 
In the coming year, efforts will also need to be directed towards the discussion on the 
future of the publication, the following twenty-five years, and the priorities. 
As always, all enthusiasts, experts and researchers who care deeply about security, 
defence and the military, and who have a professional or research interest in areas 
which our common future depends on, will contribute to this process.
One of them is Špela Boc, who studies the topic of Military burden sharing within the 
Alliance. This is a phenomenon that is very important in the Alliance, but in practice 
implemented differently by Member States. The way to define and evaluate it, and, 
in particular, to compare it between countries in a way that is fair and proportionate, 
is an interesting challenge. The question, of course, is whether it really needs to be 
compared and evaluated in an alliance, which is based on solidarity.
Climate change as a challenge to the armed forces is a topic that has been on the 
agenda for quite some time, and we assess time and again that this will continue to be 
the case in the future. László Földi and József Padányi note that natural disasters are 
on the increase in the European Union as a result of climate change, which requires 
countries to involve the armed forces in tackling them. The latter will also have to 
prepare themselves adequately for such national responses.
Milica Sikimić examines the quality of police officer training in Bosnia and 
Herzegovina to deal with terrorism. In her paper Rethinking the basic police training 
policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, she finds that the organizational dispersion in 
Liliana Brožič
 13 Sodobni vojaški izzivi/Contemporary Military Challenges
CONTEMPORARY MILITARY CHALLENGES – SECOND QUATER 
different parts of the country also affects their different readiness levels in this area 
and establishes what could be done to improve this.
Further on, Ana Hazler also uses a survey to investigate Establishing terminology 
management infrastructure – a case study of Slovenian defence and military 
terminology. What are the results of years-long terminology management efforts, 
how well are they working and where are the opportunities for improvement? She has 
exchanged ideas in cooperation with foreign experts, and found some new solutions.
The origin of some military terms from a linguistic point of view explains in detail 
the history and logic of the origin of some of the most commonly used and best-
known military terms. These also include military ranks. Cristina Sáiz Enfedaque 
and Antonio Martínez De Baños Carrillo have studied the origins of these words, 
where international cooperation has made an important contribution long time ago. 
Several languages have influenced the evolution of words, all of which have their 
logical designations.
Oliver Andonov and Jana Iljeva write about European security. They stress the 
importance of the national and security identities of the Member States, which also 
have an important impact on the European one.  Their article European security 
through the prism of identity and international conflicts (the case of the Republic of 
North Macedonia) offers an insight into developments in this field in the Western 
Balkans. This has been marked throughout history by an increased dynamics of 
various processes and, as the authors suggest, the time is right to pay more attention 
to the priorities that are forward-looking and less to those of the past, important 
though they are.