The intention of the research conducted in April-May 2011 was to find out how citizens see and interpret (valuate) the correlation between the national security and their own, group and/or collective, identity.

Within this endeavour, the citizens were asked to, among other things, express and grade their (dis)satisfaction with the security services of the state and its apparatus, and to present the level of their (dis)trust, not only in them, but in their leaders as well.

Citizens’ views on this was followed along two, interconnected, thematic lines. Along the first one it was examined how the citizens connect the situation in Kosovo and Metohija and their, personal and national, security. The analysis and interpretation of collected data was tackled by Mr Filip Ejdus. His main findings are presented in his paper entitled “Cognitive Dissonance and Security Policy of Serbia”, with which this issue of Security of Western Balkans magazine starts its overview of the findings of Serbian public opinion survey on security.

The intention of the second line was not only to learn what is the attitude of the citizens towards Serbian potential accession to the EU, or NATO, but also whether they expect to see any appertaining security benefits for themselves or for the nation (the state), or only the damage. The main focus, however, was on finding out whether the surveyed people see the above integrations as a threat to the preservation of national identity. The data obtained in this regard were analysed by Mr Zoran Krstić, who presented his findings to the interested members of public in his paper entitled “Relationship between the National and European Identity of Serbs”.

At the same time, the public opinion survey that is addressed here offered an opportunity for the BCSP researchers to additionally check whether there are any closer links between the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents and their attitudes with regard to security, and even more so for the reason that Serbia and its citizens are still held in the turmoil of slow and costly transition with uncertain outcome.

For this purpose, Predrag Petrović and Marko Milošević constructed a personality of an average ‘loser in transition’ in this country and then, each of them independently, analysed how and to what extent this ‘loser’s status’ is connected with the attitudes that the respondents took towards different aspects of their security.

Moreover, interested readers will find enclosed to this issue of the magazine a tabular overview of the respondents’ attitudes distribution across selected socio-demographic characteristics. This, among other things, offers an opportunity for them to learn more about what the citizens of Serbia think about their security, but also to make a critical analysis of above authors.