Relation between sociology and defense sciences

It has taken the humankind a lot of effort, time, curiosity, creative restlessness and fruitful suffering to reach the fields and starry firmament of the world of science. Science is a powerful, creative and developmental tool of people in their endeavor to disclose the secrets of man, society, nature, and history and to understand multiplicity of the world in a rational, logical and relatively objective way, where human fruitful, creative and never confined knowledge and wisdom penetrate the conflicting, multilayered and secretive nature of all created things, social and cosmic phenomena, as the wise Greek philosopher said 'nature likes to hide the things away'. According to the subject nature criteria, sciences are divided into two main groups: social and natural sciences. The academician Mihajlo Markovic, in his renowned work Philosophical Basis of Science, emphasizes that 'the subject of scientific research is not things or processes as such, but problems related to these things and processes, posed before the man in the light of his practical needs, previous knowledge and methodical instruments available to him'. We are interested in the relation of the sociology with specific sociologies, and especially with the military sociology. There are many doubts and antinomies, and our analysis, and hopefully fruitful synthesis, should offer adequate answers to these not at all simple dilemmas and problems with respect to the defense sciences and their relations to sociology and its separate disciplines which focus on research into phenomena of armed forces, war, armed struggle, military organization and other very important social phenomena which concern armed forces. In our opinion, the key topics and areas of interest which our military sociology as a discipline of general sociology should deal with are: sociological studies of armed forces as an important social institution in the light of globalization; the issues of contemporary war, defense and security challenges, risks and threats which our country is facing; the relationship between politics and armed forces with an emphasis on civil-military relations; and the role and position of our armed forces in the light of the powerful military-political integrations in the world. Only a thoroughly and comprehensively changed world, and humans who live in it, can hope for peace. As long as the world is divided, there is little prospect for it. However, it does not mean that we should give up, for, as Confucius claimed, one should continue trying even when he fails in what he wants. If the man stopped rolling the Sisyphean stone uphill, would he still be called a man? Social sciences, sociology and its disciplines dealing with armed forces, war, military organization, can contribute to a considerable degree to the realization of this ideal of mankind. Sociology interprets, understands, and predicts future events, and consequently it is of priceless importance for defense sciences and armed forces, together with other social sciences and humanities which provide a close and thorough insight into the sphere of defense.