Current Trends in Research Methodology in Security and Defense Research

Abstract

Introduction. Defence and Security Studies is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses the study of military affairs, security issues, defence policy, and national security strategies [1]. It includes the study of military organisations, defence technologies, strategic planning, conflict resolution, and the role of the armed forces in securing national interests. Therefore, as Nikolic [2] argues, research in the defence and security sector often has a specific multidisciplinary character, that is, in order to fully understand the dynamics of defence and security in modern societies, researchers draw on knowledge and research methodologies from the sciences of politics, economics, sociology, strategic management, international relations and others. The changing nature of security threats and technological advances presents increasing challenges to the security and defence sector. Given the complexity and interdisciplinary nature of the field under analysis,it is argued that it is necessary for researchers studying security issues, assessing risks or predicting future patterns to apply not only new, but also properly selected methodological approaches, and data collection and processing methods. Therefore, researchers should keep the field of research, the methodological approaches and methods used, and the flow of topics and issues under analysis constantly reviewed. From a methodological point of view, defence and security studies face a number of challenges related not only to the choice of the topic and the formulation of the problem, but more often to the selection of appropriate research methodologies, limitations of data collection methods, challenges in the application of data analysis techniques, and difficulties in the interpretation of results [3]. Moreover, defence studies, as an interdisciplinary field, pose unique methodological dilemmas in the study of complex security problems, as researchers have to navigate between quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches and different data collection and analysis methods. For this reason, it is essential to justify the suitability of the choice of methodology for the stated purpose and the reliability of the results [4]. Therefore, to identify the contemporary trends in research methodology in security and defence studies, this paper reviews the methodological approaches used in security and defence studies and the specifics of their choice in relation to the research topic. [...].