The Russian Military: Power and Policy (American Academy Studies in Global Security)

257 Pages·2004·0.67 MB·English

by  Miller & Trenin (eds)

The Russian Military
Power and Policy
Steven E. Miller and Dmitri Trenin, editors
The Russian Military
American Academy Studies in Global Security
Carl Kaysen, John Steinbruner, and Martin B. Malin, editors
Robert Legvold, ed., Thinking Strategically: The Major
Powers, Kazakhstan, and the Central Asian Nexus
Robert Legvold, Celeste A. Wallander, ed.,Swords and
Sustenance: The Economics of Security in Belarus and Ukraine
Steven E. Miller, Dmitri V. Trenin, ed., The Russian Military:
Power and Policy
The American Academy Studies in Global Security book series is
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The Russian Military:
Power and Policy
Steven E. Miller and Dmitri V. Trenin, editors
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Cambridge, Massachusetts
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2004 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
136 Irving Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-1996
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including
photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval)
without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in ITC Galliard by Anne Read.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Russian military: power and policy edited by Steven E. Miller and Dmitri Trenin
p. cm.—(American Academy studies in global security)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-262-13450-0 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-262-63305-1 (pbk: alk. paper)
1. Russia (Federation)—Armed Forces. 2. Russia (Federation)—Military policy
3. Russia (Federation)—Defenses. I. Miller, Steven E. II. Trenin, Dmitri III. Series.
UA770.R843 2004
3550.033047—dc22
2004050463
The views expressed in this volume are those held by each contributor. They do
not necessarily represent the position of the Officers and Fellows of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Contents
vii FOREWORD
xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
xiii GLOSSARY OF ACRONYMS
1 INTRODUCTION
Moscow’s Military Power: Russia’s Search for Security in an
Age of Transition
Steven E. Miller
43 CHAPTER 1
The Trajectory of the Russian Military: Downsizing,
Degeneration, and Defeat
Pavel K. Baev
73 CHAPTER 2
The Social and Political Condition of the Russian Military
Aleksandr Golts
95 CHAPTER 3
Military Reform: From Crisis to Stagnation
Alexei G. Arbatov
121 CHAPTER 4
Russia, Regional Conflict, and the Use of Military Power
Roy Allison
157 CHAPTER 5
The Economics of Defense in Russia and the Legacy of
Structural Militarization
Vitaly V. Shlykov
183 CHAPTER 6
Nuclear Weapons in Current Russian Policy
Rose Gottemoeller
217 CONCLUSION
Gold Eagle, Red Star
Dmitri V. Trenin
233 CONTRIBUTORS
237 INDEX

Foreword
This book is one of five volumes on security challenges to the
international community posed by developments within the vast
territory of what was once the Soviet Union. It would take a
verylong series indeed to explore in detail all of the security relationships
among the successor states of the former Soviet Union. The issues
selected for further study in this series we believe are among the most
important. The approach to these issues is a practical one: rather than
settle for generalizations driven by broad analytical categories, each book
deals with a specific manifestation of a selected problem and studies it
from the “ground up.”
The current volume deals directly with the military profile of the key
country in the region, Russia. Not much can be said about the broader
international significance of security trends within the former Soviet
Union without having some sense of what kind of military power Russia
is today. The Russian armed forces remain a scaled-down and much bat-
tered version of their Soviet predecessor. This book examines how the
Russian military has absorbed the shock of the collapse of empire and
simultaneously resisted efforts at serious reform. The authors draw the
many dimensions of Russia’s military physiognomy—the evolution of
defense policy, the socioeconomic condition of the military, Russia’s use
of force in regional conflicts, and its approach to nuclear weapons—into
asingle composite picture. The book provides a broad assessment of how
Russia fits into both regional and international contexts as a military
actor.
The next volume to appear in the series will consider the relationship
of mutual and national security in the Caucasus region, with a focus on
Georgia. Not only is that country undergoing painful political and eco-
nomic transformation, but it also suffers from violent internal conflicts
that resonate with interregional tensions. Add to this the involvement
ofmany external players, as well as the influence of oil politics, and the
picture grows very complex. This book will seek to explain how this tor-
tured and multilayered context is affecting the way Georgia contends
with secessionist violence, approaches its defense establishment, thinks
THE RUSSIAN MILITARY vii
viii FOREWORD
about the role of the military in foreign policy, and manages military rela-
tions with its neighbors and outside powers.
A previous volume in the series, Swords and Sustenance: The Economics
of Security in Belarus and Ukraine (2004), tackles the problem of how
economic factors impinge on the national security policies of the states of
this region. Unique as some features of Belarus and Ukraine are, the way
that economic considerations shape and complicate their national security
agendas applies in crucial respects to virtually all of the post-Soviet states
because of their geopolitical environment and legacy as Soviet republics.
Their environment means Russia looms large as potential partner or
potential threat, while Europe and the United States are potential part-
ners or problems as well. Their legacy of political and economic integra-
tion within the Soviet Union created a high level of dependence on
Russia and distance from the Western global economy, affecting the costs
and benefits of alternative security policies. The intermingling of eco-
nomic and security factors is further deepened by the fact that these
countries remain in the earlier stages of their post-Soviet political and
economic transitions, rendering their choice often a matter of national
sovereignty and survival.
The first volume in the series, Thinking Strategically: The Major
Powers, Kazakhstan, and the Central Asian Nexus (2003), assesses how
systematically, ambitiously, and skillfully the major powers have thought
about and pursued their vital stakes in Central Asia. It does so by com-
paring the policies of China, Japan, Russia, Europe, and the United
States toward a key country in this crucial region, Kazakhstan. Without
pretending that the knowledge generated in a specific case study can be
applied perfectly to the policies of the major powers in other parts of the
former Soviet Union, the book’s basic insights, made richer by the con-
crete instance from which they are derived, deepen our understanding of
what roles the major powers are playing in the massive hinterland of
Europe and Asia.
A forerunner to the books in the series, Belarus at the Crossroads
(1999), shares the same conception and examines what kinds of security
issues are overlooked when the complex challenges raised by the larger
post-Soviet space are reduced to the single dimension of Russia’s rela-
tionship with the West. The book illuminates the way in which Belarus in
its external relations considerably complicates European security issues as
NATO expands and analytical energies are focused on resolving Russia’s
relationship with it.
THE RUSSIAN MILITARY ix
Wethank the Carnegie Corporation of New York for its support of
the project, which has been carried out under the auspices of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and its Committee on
International Security Studies. Robert Legvold is the intellectual and
organizational force behind the entire project. We are grateful for the
important work he has done to advance our understanding of the inter-
national implications of developments within the post-Soviet space.
Carl Kaysen and John Steinbruner
Co-chairs, Committee on International Security Studies
April 2004