Cambridge University Press Soviet Strategy and the New Military Thinking

The Soviet Union remains a superpower with global security interests and ambitions. The doctrines, practices, and capabilities of its still formidable armed forces are shaping world politics just at the same time that the future of the country that created them is in doubt. This book, first published in 1991, analyses the unprecedented changes, as well as the troubling continuities, that characterized Soviet military thinking during the early 1990s. The authors - a group of leading analysts in the US national security community - confront the range of Soviet military strengths, including intercontinental nuclear power, conventional ground, and naval forces and special operations. They address questions of Soviet weapons research and development, military planning and policy making, and the role of civilian critics on Soviet military objectives. Other chapters explore the Red Army's erosion in Eastern Europe as well as the lessons of Afghanistan. Book Description This book, first published in 1991, analyses the unprecedented changes, as well as the troubling continuities, that characterized Soviet military thinking during the early 1990s. From the Back Cover Whatever the outcome of the current constitutional reforms, the Soviet Union will remain a military superpower with global security interests. The doctrines, practices, and capabilities of its still formidable armed forces are shaping world politics just at the time that the future of the country that created them is in doubt. This is the first book to examine the Soviet defense outlook and military forces in the light of these developments. In Soviet strategy and new military thinking a group of leading strategists and Sovietologists, writing from within the US national security community, analyzes the unprecedented changes, as well as the troubling continuities, that characterize Soviet military thinking during the 1990s. The authors confront the range of Soviet military strengths, including intercontinental nuclear power, conventional ground forces and naval capabilities and special operations. They address questions of weapons research and development, military planning and policy-making, and the role of civilian critics on Soviet military objectives. Other chapters explore the erosion of the Soviet Army's diminished influence on Eastern Europe as well as the lessons of Afghanistan. Based on primary Soviet sources and extensive personal experiences, Soviet strategy and new military thinking is an authoritative and comprehensive evaluation of Soviet military power amid kaleidoscopic political and strategic change. It will be widely read by students and specialists of security studies, international relations and the Soviet Union; by journalists, diplomats and military professionals.