Russian Strategy for Escalation Management: Key Debates And Players in Military Thought

Abstract

This report offers an overview of the main debates in Russian military thought on deterrence and escalation management in the post-Cold War period, based on authoritative publications. It explores discussions by Russian military analysts and strategists on regional nuclear deterrence, namely the structure of a two-level deterrence system (regional and global); debates on nonnuclear deterrence and the role of strategic conventional weapons in escalation management; as well as writings on the evolution of damage concepts toward ones that reflect damage that is tailored to the adversary. Russian military thinking on damage informs the broader discourse on ways and means to shift an opponents calculus in an escalating conflict. The report concludes with summaries of recent articles that reflect ongoing discourse on the evolution of Russias strategic deterrence system and key trends in Russian military thought on escalation management.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2020
Accession Number
AD1102854

Entities

People

  • Anya Fink
  • Michael Kofman

Organizations

  • Center for Naval Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Cold War
  • Conventional Capabilities
  • Doctrine
  • Economics
  • Employment
  • Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
  • Military Doctrine
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Social Sciences
  • Strategic Weapons
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States
  • United States European Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies