THE IMPORTANCE OF TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION IN THE CONCEPTION OF CIVIL AND TERRITORIAL DEFENSE

Territories are human social creations. Although the notion of territoriality alone, just like a use of it in various languages, may differ in some very wider sense, also the specific forms that it takes are enormously varied. There is a difference in the importance and the attitude toward the territory and territoriality between literate societies and those of oral societies. It is understandable since there are strongly dissimilar forms of social life and different kinds of communicative practices. Not just for issues regarding the political or economic importance, but also for civil and military defense purposes, territoriality has always been an important issue of mankind. Above all, territory in relation to human possession is an achievement and result of various historical, soc-economic, military and political processes. Again, territoriality and territorial organization, is much more than a strategy for control of space, it is actually one the primary bases for developing the concept or even a doctrine of civil and territorial defense. The proper organization, which takes into account the possible or hypothetical situations of an attack by a foreign force, or by a destructive internal force, allows the adequate use of human resources, as the main pillar in the resistance to the invasion of the country. Various examples shows that in order to be a successful nation in this regard, it is not only the size or configuration of the terrain that is important, but above all it is the knowledge and the way of organizing the defense according to territory. The Civil and Territorial defence as a concept is focused on small, lightly armed units prepared for actions on a familiar local terrain. In the example of Ex Yugoslavia, such defence forces contributed to the founding of the respective armies of the newly independent states that emerged after the disintegration of Yugoslavia. This includes the Armies of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia which conducted their first battles without being transformed into the Army. In the early stages of the war, resistance was much more efficient and successful in those territories where civil defense and territorial defense had been previously at a higher level of seriousness and organization