The Soviet General Staff. Its Impact on Military Professionalism and National Security Decisionmaking.
Abstract
An examination of the role of the General Staff in terms of the elaboration and implementation of Soviet military doctrine, the participation of the Soviet military in various aspects of foreign policy activities--including arms control and the provisions of military assistance--and the involvement of the General Staff in the affairs of the highest state organs concerned with Soviet national security affairs serves to confirm the substantial influence of this key organ which is accurately characterized by the Soviets as the 'brain of the army'. At the same time, a focus upon the activities of the General Staff in fostering the growth of a professional Soviet officer corps necessitates a reappraisal of exisiting models of Party-military relations in the Soviet Union. The three prevailing models--conflict, institutional congruence, and participatory--of those relations all appear to have as their central assumption the existence of actual or latent hostility between the Party and military institutions. In the case of the latter two models, this potential conflict is minimized through the convergence of values and the Party's satisfaction of the military's corporate interests. The emergence of a stable, legitimate political system in the USSR suggests that it is time to reevaluate Samuel Huntington's patterns of civil-military relations, for they appear relevant to the current Soviet situation. Adopting Huntington's criteria, there is ample evidence that a truly professional military officer corps has emerged in the USSR. The emergence of this corps suggests a long-term stability in Party-military relations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 15, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA176919
Entities
People
- Kenneth M. Currie
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology