“Croatian Defence Academy from the Homeland War to academic community”

The papers, discusson and exchange of views  aimed to assert the Academy as a higher education and research institution at the national level and beyond  and to be recognised as a military centre of excellence.
The host and the round table organiser was Lieutenant General Slavko Barić , the Commander of the Academy, and the participating experts were the Assistant Defence Minister  for Human Resources Zoran Piličić, the  Defence Inspector,  Major General Slaven Zdilar, the Rector of the University of Zagreb, Damir Boras, the Assistant Minister of Science, Education and Sport, Srećko Tomas, the Member of the Croatian Parliament, Prof. Miroslav Tuđman, the former Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces, General (Ret.) Josip Lucić, the Assistant Minister of the Interior, Josip Mihaljević, theDirector of the Croatian Homeland War Memorial Documentation Centre, Ante Nazor, the representatives of the services of the Croatian Armed Forces and others.
Lieutenant General Slavko Barić emphasised that the objective of the event was to discuss  and highlight the role of the military education from the early days to the current situation from various standpoints and experiences, and to provide an outlook of its further transformation either as an autonomous higher education institution or as a segment of the civilian academic community.
The Assistant Minister for Human Resources Zoran Piličić summarised the course of the development of the education of officers and NCOs, and highlighted the role of human potentials in the development of the Croatian Defence Academy.
Rector Boras  addressed the future transformation possibilities of the Croatian Defence Academy.  
The Round Table comprised two panels – “Challenges and responses over the years of the activity“, featuring the lectures by the Director of the Memorial and Documentation Centre (“Croatian Defence Academy in the Homeland War“. General  Lucić delivered an address on the role of the Croatian Defence Academy in the transition of the Croatian military from the wartime force into a peace-time force, and Colonel  Mirko Jakopčić recalled the key moments in the development of the Croatian Defence Academy. The panel was concluded by the lecture by Prof. Davor Petrinović on the past co-operation between the Academy and the academic community.
The second panel was opened by the lecture by Prof. Miroslav Tuđman  on the strategic challenges and education programmes  of the Croatian Defence Academy.  A group of authors (prof. Ozren Žunec of the Faculty of Philosophy, Colonel Željko Živanović and Commander (N) Ivica Mandić, presented by Colonel Andrija Platužić) delivered a lecture “The Croatian Defence Academy as a military college  or a component of the civilian university“. The closing lecture was by Colonel Marinko Lozančić “The Croatian Defence Academy – education and science”.