Preliminary communication
Attitudes of the Croatian Public and Officers of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia on the Accession of the Republic of Croatia to NATO
Tomislav SMERIĆ
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Anka MIŠETIĆ
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Geran-Marko MILETIĆ
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Abstract
The paper presents and analyses the comparative results of
a questionnaire on attitudes of the Croatian public
(N=3,420) and officers of the Croatian Armed Forces
(N=596) with regard to the accession to NATO of the
Republic of Croatia, conducted in 2008. Accession to NATO
was identified as the most favourable foreign political option
for national security by a relative majority of the citizens
(37%) and by more than three quarters of the officers
(76.1%). Support for joining NATO in a hypothetical
referendum would be given by almost twice as many citizens
(42.9%) in relation to the number of those opposing it
(23.1%), and almost four fifths of the officers (78.3%) would
vote for accession. Public expectations about the possible
consequences of the country’s accession to NATO are mostly favourable with regard to the majority of the military security,
political and economic consequences. An exception is the
expected increased exposure of the country to terrorist
attacks (shared by the officers) and possible limitation of the
political autonomy of the state. Mostly negative
consequences are also expected by the public at the local
social and environmental levels. The estimates of the officers
are more positive in relation to the majority of the expected
military security, political and economic consequences, while,
unlike the public, they do not expect any negative
consequences on the social and environmental levels. On
the whole, the results indicate a relative conformity between
the public’s orientation and the orientation of the officers,
although the officers more prominently support the accession
to NATO.
Keywords
NATO; Republic of Croatia; the public; Croatian Armed Forces officers
Hrčak ID:
38950
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2009.
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