The Russian Military into the 21st Century

This work attempts to clarify the major problems facing Russia's armed forces in the present and immediate future. Russia's military has been in decline since the end of the Cold War. Its fledgling democracy and struggling economy have also served as an inertial drag on military reform. Nevertheless, Russia has a strong military tradition dating back to Tsarist times, and that tradition includes World War II and Cold War achievements of the Soviet military still highly regarded by many Russians. Contributors explain the major challenges facing Russian defence and security policy with respect to possible adversaries beyond Russia's borders and within Russia herself. Russia has and will continue to have serious security problems outside of, and within, its state borders. These problems include political risings within the country, and the fragile roots of its contemporary experiment with democracy and free market economics. Unless Russia finds a way to deal with its system of addiction and corruption, it will neither reform its military nor its policy.

Part I The Geopolitical Setting for Russian Military Security; Chapter 1 ‘We Have Plenty To Defend Ourselves With…’: Russian Rhetoric, Russian Realism?, John Erickson; Chapter 2 If War Will Come Tomorrow, Peter Rainow; Part II National Security Concepts and Military Performance; Chapter 3 The New Turn in Russian Defense Policy: Russia’s Defense Doctrine and National Security Concept, Stephen J. Blank; Chapter 4 The Russian Army and Chechnya: Victory instead of Reform?, Pavel K. Baev; Part III The Information Revolution and the Military: Challenges and Risks; Chapter 5 Russia’s Asymmetrical Approach to Information War, Timothy L. Thomas; Chapter 6 Assessing the Russian Nuclear C3 System, Stephen J. Cimbala; Part IV The Societal Dimension of Security and Defense; Chapter 7 Public Attitudes toward the Armed Forces in Russia: Do They Count?, Stephen L. Webber; Chapter 8 The Soldiers’ Mothers of St Petersburg: A Human Rights Movement in Russia, Yelizaveta Bogoslovskaya, Ella Polyakova, Yelena Vilenskaya;

Stephen J. Cimbala Penn State Delaware County Campus