Cyber Conflict: Competing National Perspectives

Chapter 8A Slovenian Perspective on Cyber Warfare ¹

 

 

 

8.1. Introduction

Twenty years ago, the small Republic of Slovenia, part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, decided to exercise its right of self-determination and with confirmation by the plebiscite ¹ started to walk along the path of its own independence. The day after the Republic of Slovenia ² declared its independence was the start of first war in Europe after World War II. A cease-fire agreement was reached after only 10 days of war and the Yugoslav army started to withdraw into other parts of Yugoslavia. Slovenian citizens had achieved independence with strong unity and determination to defend their own freedom by all means.

To fight against a strong army, every aspect of strategy is very important. Every part of society must become a battlefield and every adult citizen has to contribute in his or her role in the fight against the enemy. Despite the bloody war in the neighboring country of Croatia which then spread into Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Slovenian citizens, in their collective national consciousness, quickly replaced a sense of constant military threat with actual themes for a better standard of living and the desire for political integration in the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance.

When they reached their main goals in less than 15 years, the compact unity that was capable of achieving almost unreachable goals started to fall apart. Slovenian ...