In the introduction author points out that crises are omnipresent in the history of human societies. Due to this and their potentially devastating consequences they have to be in the focus of researches, and adequate capacities for crisis management have to be built in the public, state and profit sectors. In that context, the author gives a brief description of the importance of crisis management as a theory and as a practice in the contemporary world. After that, he assesses that the theory and practice of crisis management in Serbia are at the very beginning although this country has in the last few decades been in a stage of very serious and deep crises in the spheres of politics, the economy and security. The author refers to the most important reasons for this situation and the prospects of developing Serbian crisis management in the near future, describing the new draft Law of Protection and Rescue that is waiting to be adopted in the Serbian Parliament.