THE ROLE OF THE ARMED FORCES IN THE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL DEFENSE (IN YUGOSLAVIA)
THE ROLE OF THE ARMED FORCES IN THE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL DEFENSE (IN YUGOSLAVIA)

Summary/Abstract: The roots of the present-day Yugoslav system of national defense, and thereby also of the organization and way of using the armed forces for strategic, operational and tactical purposes, can be traced back to the Yugoslav National Liberation War in 1941—1945. In conducting the liberation war, which was a new departure from the military point of view, i.e. a qualitatively new form of partisan armed struggle, various forms of resistance were used with actual combat operations taking a dominant place. According to the present conception of total national defensive war1 2 there are three basic strategic forms of resistance: Armed struggle by regular army units (the Yugoslav People’s Army); operations by territorial defense units; and various forms of political, diversionary, technical and other kinds of resistance carried out by socio-political organizations and associations.

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