In 1975/76 "General people's defence and social self-protection" studies were introduced at the Faculty of Sociology, Political Science and Journalism. The studies were a product of the then defence doctrine that required the extensive defence preparedness of economic subjects and other civilian structures, and teaching of defence-related topics at high school and university levels of education. These needs were covered by civilian defence experts provided by the above mentioned studies. The latter created an opportunity to develop a new professional and scientific inter-disciplinary field, Defence Studies. The development of Defence Studies as a discipline was marked first of all by the definition of the research subject that was dispersed over various, not only social, sciences, the formation of theoretical concepts and selection of adequate methods of theoretical and empirical research, the introversion of scientific principles and academic norms, the formation of an autonomous but at the same time creative attitude towards the surroundings, especially towards politics and security practices, and a search for a reflection of its own theoretical and empirical findings in the international academic sphere. In recent times, the process of the 'epistemic realisation' of defence studies has been confronted with some problems that will be listed in the final part of the article.
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