This doctoral dissertation examines civil-military (dis)integration in the Republic of Slovenia by analysing the gap between the Slovenian Armed Forces (SAF), the political state, and broader society. Civil-military (dis)integration is defined as both a process and a condition that comprehensively captures the separateness and affinity between the armed forces and their parent society, reflecting the degree to which the two spheres are harmoniously aligned or in conflict; the civil-military gap is understood as its key empirical indicator. The theoretical framework builds on the civil-military gap model proposed by Rahbek-Clemmensen et al. (2012), which distinguishes the cultural, socio-structural, and policy-preference dimensions of the gap, and on the role-conception theory of Harig, Jenne, and Ruffa (2022). The study employs an iterative mixed-methods research design. The quantitative component comprises a comparative survey of three samples: the general population (n = 1089), SAF personnel (n = 459), and political decision-makers (n = 20), enabling a systematic comparison of attitudes, values, and preferences across the military and civilian samples. The qualitative component includes semi-structured interviews with three institutional actors on SAF role conceptions, a computer-assisted analysis of SAF media representation based on articles from the RTV Slovenija and 24ur web portals in the period 2010–2025, an analysis of recruitment and retention challenges drawing on the ZaKadrSV research project, and a thematic analysis of four key national-security strategic documents. The findings reveal a distinct civil-military gap in Slovenia that is expressed less through hostility or political disagreement than through cultural indifference. At the institutional level, the available evidence does not indicate a pronounced crisis of integration: according to the study, democratic civilian control functions, elite-level role conceptions of the SAF are largely convergent, and the strategic documents do not display overt structural disintegration. At the societal level, however, the predominant pattern is a lack of engagement: society normatively supports its armed forces but does not engage with them substantively. Public knowledge of the SAF is superficial, interest in national-security matters is weak, and willingness to increase defence spending is low.
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