The Russian Military: Is Time Running Out?

by Stephen J. Blank, James Colbert (Editor)

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the expansion of NATO to include three countries formerly part of the Warsaw Pact signaled an end to the threat from the East – from Russia. Western countries, the United States in particular, responded to the changed strategic atmosphere by reducing defense spending and the size and structure of their armed forces. The presumed “peace dividend” was soon spent. Far too soon, according to Professor Stephen Blank, Doulas MacArthur Professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA. As Blank emphasizes in The Russian Military, Russia still wants the status of a Great Power, and the Russian military, a ghost of its former self, still has the ability to create problems for Western interests.

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Dr. Stephen J. Blank has served as the Strategic Studies Institute’s expert on the Soviet bloc and the post-Soviet world since 1989. Prior to that he was Associate Professor of Soviet Studies at the Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research, and Education, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL; and taught at the University of Texas, San Antonio; and at the University of California, Riverside.