Field research
The research into public opinion on various social issues has been
maintained for the last forty years, while research into public
opinion on security has been carried out for the last twenty
years. The first opinion on Slovenia's national security goes back to
the period when Slovenia was gaining back its independence, between
1990 and 1991. The Defence Studies Research Centre repeated the poll
at the end of 1994 and the beginning of 1995 and, for the first time,
factors relating to Slovenia's potential membership of NATO were
included. Research of this type continued in 1999 when researchers,
under the project entitled Security Integration in Europe, devoted
even more space to European security and defence integration
processes. The in-depth public opinion poll entitled "National
and International Security" was carried out by the Defence
Studies Research Centre, which is a part of the Social Studies
Institute at the University of Ljubljana. The opinion poll was carried
out in November 2001 and the results were presented in February 2002.
The theoretical aspect of the poll was devised then broken down and
organised into a questionnaire by a research group at the Defence
Studies Research Centre, in line with international standards for this
area and taking into account Slovenia's specific security
characteristics. In particular, the AAPOR (American Association for
Public Opinion Research) standards were taken into account, as well as
the experience gained through participation in international
associations of researchers in projects such as ERGOMAS (European
Research Group on Military and Society), ISA (International
Sociological Association), Research Committee 01: Armed Forces and
Conflict Resolution, and COST (Co- operation in Science and
Technology) within the EU. The field phase of the project was in both
cases conducted by the Public Opinion and Mass Media Research Centre,
which is also a part of the Social Studies Institute.
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