Due to the effects of the financial and economic crisis in 2009, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia started to decrease its expenditures by cutting the defence budget for roughly 40% in the next few years. One of the consequences of such severe cuts, which can still be felt today, is the inability of the Armed Forces to fulfill its personnel manning quotas. Currently, active duty and reserve units of the Slovenian Armed Forces are at 60% of their authorized manning levels. Since 2014, the security situation in the world deteriorated, which affected the defence and security policies of the EU and NATO member states. Slovenia, who, as a member of both organizations took upon itself an important part of collective responsibilities and burden sharing, is no exception. Since the Slovenian Armed Forces are severely understaffed, they cannot carry out all the tasks given to them by the Defence Act, which means that urgent measures are needed in order to fully staff the Armed Forces. While the desired end state, fully manned Armed Forces, is clear, the question remains how to achieve it: should we continue with the same recruitment policies, reintroduce conscription, or establish a system of combined fulfillment of manning requirements? I approached this dilemma by analyzing Slovenia’s strategic documents in the areas of defence and security, comparing the documents with the real life situation, and by asking leading professionals from the areas of defence and security about their opinion what should be done to improve the state of the Slovenian Armed Forces.
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