Attitudes of local population and armed forces in the Republic of Slovenia on the environmental impacts of peacetime military activities: unaddressed perspective in civil-military relations

The degradation of the natural environment is accelerated by anthropogenic factors such as intensive industrial production, population growth, and the spread of urban areas. The armed forces are a state institution that, given its size, activities, and capabilities, impacts the environment. Armed forces, by their purpose (defence of the state), train in the natural environment with which they create specific interactions. Modern theoretical perspectives on civil-military relations emphasize the need to redefine civil-military relations by incorporating new contents, to which we add an environmental dimension, define it, and present it using an example. Successfully addressing military environmental issues at the local level contributes to stable civil-military relations. With an empirical study conducted in the Republic of Slovenia, we determined the views of the local population (in proximity to a military training ground) and members of a selected unit of the Slovenian Armed Forces (SAF) on the military environmental impacts. The survey included 146 residents of Prestranek and 298 members of the 1st Brigade (SAF). The data collected through the questionnaire were analysed using quantitative data analysis and interpreted in the context of the environmental dimension of civil-military relations in the Republic of Slovenia. Residents of Prestranek perceive energy-chemical impacts, hazardous impacts, and restrictions of environmental rights to be significantly more threatening to the environment compared to the members of the 1st Brigade. We explain divergences with certain factors that reinforce the local population’s opposition concerning the environmental impacts of military activities (environmental awareness, proximity to a military installation, long-term military presence, imposed and past experiences, frustrations, etc.) and point toward an uncompleted model of civil-military relations in the Republic of Slovenia relating to environmental dimension.