Strategic culture and national security

Abstract

The conceptualization of strategic culture, as a relatively new field of study, is a challenge for contemporary scientific thought. The complexity of strategic culture factors and their complex interdependence make the process of its understanding and definition extremely hard and almost elusive. However, the fact that the concept of strategic culture is accepted and used in practice indicates the necessity of its study, regardless of methodological problems and shortcomings connected with the accessibility to relevant data related to the national security issues. This is precisely the aim of this paper ? to analyze the main aspects of strategic culture which affect the national security system. On the one hand, strategic culture has a long-term impact on the organization and functioning of the national security system. On the other, it is also an analytical instrument that anticipates the behavior of international policy actors. It is certain that state-level decision makers, top management of the security system, intelligence and security intelligence analysts, and senior military leaders deal with the strategic culture, consciously or not. These are more than enough arguments to draw attention of the scientific and professional audience to strategic culture studies.