Russia in Afghanistan and Chechnya: Military Strategic Culture and the Paradoxes of Asymmetric Conflict
Author: Robert M. Cassidy
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Published: 2022
Total Pages: 81
ISBN-13: 1428910743
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Russia in Afghanistan and Chechnya
Author: Robert M. Cassidy
Publisher:
Published: 2003-02-28
Total Pages: 82
ISBN-13: 9781463508760
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOn Christmas Eve in 1979, Soviet forces conducted a conventional assault on Kabul and other key points in Afghanistan with the aim of implanting a stable Soviet-friendly government and of quelling an insurrection. Almost 10 years later, Soviet forces withdrew after suffering close to 14,000 killed, leaving behind a very precarious pro-Soviet government and an ongoing civil war. In December 1994, Russian forces invaded Chechnya, employing almost the same conventional template used in Afghanistan. On New Year's Eve 1994, Russian forces launched their main assault on Grozny, initially suffering huge losses and meeting with failure. The goals in Chechnya were almost the same as the goals sought in Afghanistan 15 years earlier, to implant a pro-Russian government and to stabilize the Chechen republic. Russian forces pulled out of Chechnya almost 2 years later after suffering close to 6000 killed, having failed to meet their objectives. As a great power, the Soviet Union failed to win a small war in Afghanistan. As a former great power, Russia failed to win in Chechnya. In both cases, Soviet/Russian forces possessed a technological advantage and a latent numerical advantage in forces. In both cases, Soviet/Russian forces fought conventionally against an adversary who fought unconventionally. In both conflicts, the Russians faced ideologically-driven indigenous movements fighting for independence. The significant differences between Afghanistan and Chechnya were: 1) the structure of the international system underwent an enormous change, from bipolar to unipolar; and 2) Russia ceased to be a great power. Notwithstanding these two enormous changes, this study postulates that one would observe continuity in Russian military-strategic cultural preferences in Chechnya because not enough time elapsed between the end of the Cold War and the conflict in Chechnya for a cultural change to occur, military cultural change normally takes 5-10 years. Thus, one would expect to observe continuity in Russian preferences for the use of force, these preferences should reflect a focus on the big war, or conventional, paradigm for war.
Strategic Culture and Ways of War
Author: Lawrence Sondhaus
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2006-08-21
Total Pages: 161
ISBN-13: 1135989753
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis study will provide a badly-needed survey and synopsis of the scholarly literature on strategic culture and ways of war.
Security Assistance, U.S. and International Historical Perspectives: Proceedings of the Combat Studies Institute 2006 Military History Symposium
Author:
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Published:
Total Pages: 706
ISBN-13: 9780160873492
DOWNLOAD EBOOKProduct Description: The proceedings from the Combat Studies Institute's 2006 Military History Symposium presents historical research, analysis and policy recommendations on the topic of Security Assistance and the training of indigenous forces.
Routledge Handbook of Strategic Culture
Author: Kerry M. Kartchner
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2023-10-11
Total Pages: 515
ISBN-13: 1000956350
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis handbook offers a collection of cutting-edge essays on all aspects of strategic culture by a mix of international scholars, consultants, military officers, and policymakers. The volume explicitly addresses the analytical conundrums faced by scholars who wish to employ or generate strategic cultural insights, with substantive commentary on defining and scoping strategic culture, analytic frameworks and approaches, levels of analysis, sources of strategic culture, and modalities of change in strategic culture. The chapters engage strategic culture at the civilizational, regional, supra-national, national, non-state actor, and organizational levels. The volume is divided into five thematic parts, which will appeal to both students who are new to the subject and scholars who wish to incorporate strategic culture into their toolbox of analytical techniques. Part I assesses the evolving theoretical strengths and weaknesses of the field. Part II lays out elements of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the field, including sources and components of strategic culture. Part III presents a number of national strategic cultural profiles, representing the state of contemporary strategic culture scholarship. Part IV addresses the utility of strategic culture for practitioners and scholars. Part V summarizes the key theoretical and practical insights offered by the volume’s contributors. This handbook will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, defense studies, security studies, and international relations in general, as well as to professional practitioners.
Strategic Culture and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Author: K. Kartchner
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2009-01-05
Total Pages: 296
ISBN-13: 0230618308
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book describes strategic culture and its value as a methodological approach to the study of International Relations. In particular, the book uses strategic culture to illuminate a number of case studies on countries that have made decisions regarding the acquisition, proliferation or use of weapons of mass destruction.
Great Powers, Small Wars
Author: Larisa Deriglazova
Publisher: JHU Press
Published: 2020-03-03
Total Pages: 409
ISBN-13: 1421429128
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA sophisticated appraisal of the problem of asymmetric conflict in the post–World War II period. In a sophisticated combination of quantitative research and two in-depth case studies, Larisa Deriglazova surveys armed conflicts post World War II in which one power is much stronger than the other. She then focuses on the experiences of British decolonization after World War II and the United States in the 2003 Iraq war. Great Powers, Small Wars employs several large databases to identify basic characteristics and variables of wars between enemies of disproportionate power. Case studies examine the economics, domestic politics, and international factors that ultimately shaped military events more than military capacity and strategy.
The Fire Below
Author: Robert Bruce Ware
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published: 2013-05-13
Total Pages: 388
ISBN-13: 1441162062
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis groundbreaking work examines the complex dynamics of Russia's relations with the Caucasus, revealing the profound effects that Caucasian forces have had upon Russia's development. Essays show how Georgian sparks ignited conflagrations in South Ossetia (1991-1992) and Abkhazia (1992-1993), spreading northward to conflicts in Ossetia and Ingushetia (1992) and Chechnya (1994-1996). Combined with jihadist influences that entered from the South and East by way of Dagestan, these events culminated in the second Russo-Chechen war (1999-2009). Chechnya transformed both the Russian military and the presidency of Vladimir Putin. Beginning in 2000, Putin's Chechenization strategy had unforeseen and controversial results for the entire Russian Federation. These ironies are elucidated in case studies of the Stavropol region, the Sochi Olympics, the Pussy Riot conviction, and Russia's efforts to reintegrate religion with politics against the backdrop of an emerging Islamic "inner abroad.†? Neither Russia nor the Caucasus can be understood without an appreciation of their uneasy interconnection and its explosive consequences.
The Sources of Russian Foreign Policy Assertiveness
Author: Angela Borozna
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published: 2022-01-31
Total Pages: 285
ISBN-13: 3030835901
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book explores the sources of Russia’s foreign policy conduct since the end of the Cold War. It is aimed at those interested in Russian foreign policy, international security, and diplomacy. The book embraces an eclectic approach by applying insights from several strands of IR theory, exploring both international and domestic sources. The author argues that Russian foreign policy is influenced by the country’s strategic culture, which exhibits some persistent elements inherited from Russia’s imperial past and from Soviet times. The challenges to Russia’s security interests from Western policies led to an increase in Russian foreign policy assertiveness. As a result, Russia is becoming more committed to Eurasian integration and nurturing relations with China. This book further argues that Russia’s relations with the post-Soviet states have been and will remain a priority of its foreign relations and, therefore, Russia is likely to continue challenging any Western interference in these states. The author maintains that geoeconomics and the protection of overseas economic interests are becoming more prominent in Russia’s foreign policy calculus. The role of domestic factors in the country’s foreign policy, such as authoritarianism, regime vulnerability, and the role of political factions, is also examined.
War and Peace in the Caucasus
Author: Vicken Cheterian
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011-03-12
Total Pages: 406
ISBN-13: 1787381870
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAfter the collapse of the Soviet Union the Caucasus was wracked by ethnic and separatist violence as the peoples of the region struggled for self-determination. Vicken Cheterian, who spent many years as a reporter and analyst covering the region's conflicts, asks why nationalism emerged as a dominant political current, and why, of the many nationalist movements that emerged, some led to violence while others did not. He explains also why minority rebellions were victorious against larger armies, in mountainous Karabakh, Abkhazia, and in the first war of Chechnya, and discusses the ongoing instability and armed resistance in the North Caucasus. He concludes his book by examining chapters the great power competition between Russia, the US, and the EU over the oil and gas resources of the Caspian region.
