SAPCRAA: a new scientific pillar for Banja Luka

As Europe braces for the third year of war in Ukraine, as the Middle East burns after October 7, and as the defence industry once again becomes a central topic from Washington to Warsaw, an institution that could permanently change the scientific map of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been launched in Banja Luka with almost no fanfare. It is the Society for Ancient Philosophy, Cosmology, Religion, Anthropology and Astrobiology, known internationally by its acronym, SAPCRAA.

At first glance, the name reads like the programme of a classic humanities association. What makes SAPCRAA an event of regional significance, however, is not only its interdisciplinary profile but the fact that in 2023 it launched three scientific journals, two of which are, according to available records, the first of their kind in Bosnia and Herzegovina: a journal devoted to military science, strategy and defence technology, and a journal devoted to cosmology and astrobiology.

For a country where defence has for decades been discussed mainly through the prism of political division, and space hardly at all, that is no small thing.

What SAPCRAA is

SAPCRAA is a non-profit learned society and academic publisher based in Banja Luka. Its name reveals an unusual but deliberate combination of fields: from ancient philosophy and the history of religion, through anthropology, to modern cosmology and astrobiology. The common denominator is the question that has accompanied human thought from the Presocratics to the James Webb Space Telescope: where do we come from, what is the order of the world we live in, and what sustains or threatens it.

It is precisely that last dimension, what threatens order, that leads the Society to security, strategy and war studies. Rather than treating these fields as separate worlds, SAPCRAA places them within the same institutional framework. This opens space for researchers who have had nowhere to publish within the academic system of BiH without going to Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana or further afield.

The Society is conceived as an internationally open platform: submissions are accepted from authors worldwide, manuscripts undergo anonymous peer review and published content is freely available to all. Unlike many associations that exist mostly on paper, SAPCRAA began with concrete publishing work, with journals planned to appear twice a year.

Three journals, two precedents

Military Studies: the first military science journal in modern BiH

Military Studies: Journal for Strategy, Technology and Defense Sciences is the first scientific journal devoted to military science in modern Bosnia and Herzegovina. From the Dayton Agreement, through defence reform and the creation of the joint Armed Forces of BiH in 2006, to today's debates on NATO integration, the country has had no domestic peer-reviewed journal for systematic discussion of strategy, military technology and defence policy.

As a result, key topics, from the experience of the 1990s wars to the modern military industry, were analysed either abroad or in day-to-day politics. Military Studies is published in English, giving it international reach from its first issue. Its scope covers military strategy, geopolitics, defence technology, war economy, hybrid threats and the history of armed conflict.

Cosmological and Astrobiological Review: the first and only one in BiH

The second precedent is the Cosmological and Astrobiological Review, the first and only journal of its kind in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In a country with no national observatory or space agency, a peer-reviewed journal of cosmology and astrobiology carries both symbolic and practical weight: it connects the physics of the early universe, the search for life beyond Earth and philosophical questions about the origin of the cosmos.

The timing is no accident. The James Webb telescope is changing our understanding of early galaxies, the European Euclid mission released its first images in November 2023, and astrobiology is moving from the margins to become one of the most dynamic sciences of our time. Domestic researchers now have a place to join that conversation.

Critical Reflections: philosophy and the social sciences

The third journal, Critical Reflections: Journal of Philosophy and Social Sciences, publishes in Serbian and English. It is conceived as a bridge between the domestic philosophical tradition and the international academic community, focusing on philosophy, political theory, law and the social sciences. Together, the three journals span an arc from metaphysics to the battlefield, a combination rare even in much larger academic settings.

Significance for Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina

For Republika Srpska, and Banja Luka in particular, the launch of SAPCRAA strengthens the city as a scientific centre that does not rely solely on university structures. Alongside the University of Banja Luka and the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Republika Srpska, the city gains an independent, internationally oriented publisher in fields that have so far had no institutional home.

Its significance can be seen on three levels:

• Scientific sovereignty. A country without its own military science journal leaves the interpretation of its own security to others. A domestic peer-reviewed forum makes it possible to write about the wars of the 1990s, the Dayton architecture and contemporary threats with local knowledge but to international standards.
• Retaining talent. The brain drain of young researchers is one of the region's biggest problems. The opportunity to publish at home, in English-language journals with international visibility, reduces the need to build careers exclusively abroad.
• Academic diplomacy. Journals open to authors from East and West create a rare space for dialogue at a time of deepening geopolitical divisions. Banja Luka can thus become a meeting place rather than a point on the periphery.

For Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole, SAPCRAA shows that scientific institutions can be built from the bottom up, by initiative rather than solely by state decree. In a country whose public space is weighed down by division, journals devoted to strategy and the cosmos offer a common language: the language of argument, sources and peer review.

South-east Europe in an age of new wars

The start of 2024 brings a security environment Europe has not seen since the end of the Cold War. The war in Ukraine has become a grinding contest of artillery, drones and industrial capacity, and European countries are discovering that artillery ammunition production cannot come close to matching consumption at the front. The war in Gaza and attacks in the Red Sea further show how closely regional conflicts are tied to global flows.

The Balkans are no exception. Serbia is openly discussing the return of compulsory military service, Croatia is rapidly modernising its forces, and the defence industry, from Vitezit and Pretis in BiH to Serbian and Croatian manufacturers, is regaining strategic weight. NATO marks its 75th anniversary this year, while the architecture of European security changes month by month.

In this context, the region has an acute need for domestic expert analysis. This is where Military Studies gains added value: a journal from a country with direct experience of war, post-conflict reconstruction and international presence can offer a perspective that Western centres often miss. Lessons from the battlefields of the 1990s, from urban warfare and sieges to logistics under embargo and war economy, are relevant again today, from Bakhmut to Gaza.

At the same time, the cosmology and philosophy journals position the region beyond the security discourse. South-east Europe should not be known only as a space of conflict, but also as a place where the deepest questions about the nature of the world are asked.

A model for the 21st century

All three journals operate on the diamond open access model: authors pay nothing to publish and readers pay nothing to read. At a time when major publishers charge thousands of euros per article, this model is especially important for researchers from countries with modest science budgets, as is the case across most of the Western Balkans.

Quality is ensured by double-blind peer review, in which neither author nor reviewer knows the other's identity. It is the standard of the world's leading journals and a precondition for inclusion in international databases. Alongside the electronic edition, the journals also appear in print, giving them permanence and a presence in libraries and institutions.

The combination of free access, rigorous review and an international language makes SAPCRAA an unusually ambitious project for the environment it comes from. The goal is not a local bulletin but journals that can stand alongside established European publications.

Challenges

The road ahead is not simple. Scientific journals build their reputation over years, not months. Inclusion in relevant international indexes requires continuity, stable editorial boards with international members and papers that other researchers cite. Science funding in BiH remains modest, and a no-fee model relies on the enthusiasm of editors, reviewers and authors.

The advantages, however, are clear. SAPCRAA is entering fields with no domestic competition, which gives it a distinct profile. Interest in military studies in Europe is at its highest in decades, and cosmology and astrobiology are growing rapidly. If the journals maintain regularity and quality, it is realistic to expect them to become reference points for researchers across the region.

Conclusion

The launch of SAPCRAA is more than an administrative event. It is an attempt to give Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Republika Srpska in particular, its own voice in the debates shaping the 21st century: on war and peace, technology and strategy, but also on the origin and fate of the cosmos.

At a time when the map of European security is being redrawn and science is increasingly an instrument of power and influence, a small institution from Banja Luka is investing in what matters most in the long run: knowledge that is created at home and read around the world.