The Security Studies Doctoral Programme is intended for students who aim to deepen their knowledge of topical security issues and challenges of the 21st Century, and the possible means (strategies, policies) of response to them.
The main goal of the programme is a synthesis of theory and practice, namely to upgrade the theoretical knowledge of the candidates with findings derived from practice, related to both, national and international security. All this will also be made possible through the lectures of experts, operating in the national-security system of Slovenia, international governmental and non-governmental organisations and research institutions.
The introductory part of the study aims at methodological and conceptual themes (analytical approaches and the concepts of national, regional, international and global security research). As their study continues, students will deepen their knowledge of contemporary approaches to the research of international security (among other critical security studies, post-structuralism, post-modernism), recently established theories related to the present problems of international security (e.g. theories on conflict prevention and resolution, post-conflict reconstruction etc.), and the selected topical problems of international security studies (e.g. the deepening, expansion, and reconstruction of security, State and transnational civil society in the process of providing/managing security, privatisation of the contemporary military, energetics security etc.). This represents the key competitive knowledge required for employment in Slovenia and abroad (e.g. at universities, research institutions, international governmental and non-governmental organisations, institutions of the national security system of the Republic of Slovenia, including the Slovenian military, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of the Interior).
The main purpose of the doctoral study is to enable students, with a view to their professional preferences, to select the appropriate research direction and thus work with – and under the guidance of - professors who possess the relevant knowledge and experience.