Issue editors: Una Williamson, Nikolai Stoianov
This is the first issue of the Journal of Defence & Security Technologies (JDST), published by the Defence Institute “Prof. Tsvetan Lazarov,” Sofia, Bulgaria. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of scientific journals presenting new research results and advances in technology, and many of their publications are relevant to the field of defence and security. And yet, the core of the editorial team decided to launch JDST, aiming to position it as a forum where research results and technological developments are presented and discussed in view of policy needs, in terms of both operational requirements and future capabilities, support to policy formulation, and the ways in which R&T facilitates innovation in defence and security.
This issue is focused on technologies in support of law enforcement agencies. Several of the contributions reflect research results in the HOMER (Homemade Explosives and Recipes Characterisation) project, supported by EU’s Seventh Framework Programme and aiming aim to develop a knowledge management platform which will improve the capacity of security and law enforcement agencies to deal with current and anticipated threats of homemade explosives.