The Russian General Staff : Understanding the Military's Decisionmaking Role in a "Besieged Fortress" / Alexis A. Blanc.
- Format:
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- Author/Creator:
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- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
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- Physical Description:
- xi, 120 pages : color illustrations ; 28 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Santa Monica, CA : RAND, [2023]
- Summary:
- The Russian General Staff is unlike any single organization within the U.S. defense establishment. The absence of an analog in the United States means that audiences within the U.S. civilian and military communities largely are unfamiliar with the concept of a General Staff. Because of the increasing militarization of Russian foreign policy since 2008, it is important to understand not only the formal authorities and responsibilities of this institution but also its capacity to influence Russia's national security decisionmaking process. In this report, the authors develop a foundational text for policymakers and warfighters to improve collective understanding of the Russian General Staff. The authors first draw on a variety of primary and secondary Russian-language sources-e.g., statutes, speeches by political and military elites, and academic military writings-to inform their characterization of the General Staff's statutory mandate. They then place the General Staff in a comparative institutional context, providing a high-level evaluation of the institutional roles, responsibilities, and authorities of the General Staff's U.S. counterpart-the Joint Staff. They consider what the formal roles and responsibilities of the General Staff suggest about the relative balance of power among Russia's political leaders, the General Staff, and the broader Russian military. The authors then take this understanding and apply it to the roles and responsibilities of the General Staff in a practical context by analyzing two case studies of this institution's involvement in recent conflicts: Ukraine (2014-2021) and Syria (2015-2019).
- Contents:
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- Machine generated contents note: ch. One Introduction
- The Issue
- Research Approach
- Caveats
- Organization of This Report
- ch. Two Roles and Responsibilities of the Russian General Staff
- The Formal Roles and Responsibilities of the General Staff
- Supporting Internal Structure and Staffing
- Concluding Observations
- ch. Three The Russian General Staff in Comparative Context
- History and Responsibilities of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff
- Comparative Organizational Structures and Responsibilities
- Authorities
- Divergent Mandates, Divergent Aptitudes
- Observations Based on High-Level Comparative Analysis
- ch. Four The General Staff and the Balance of Power
- Early Attempts at Russian Defense Reform: A Master Class in Obstruction
- Explaining the Generals' Success in Obstruction
- How the Stars Aligned Behind Change
- ch. Five The General Staff in a Practical Context: Ukraine Case Study
- Introduction
- Crimea, the Donbas, and the Russian General Staff
- Russian Intervention in Crimea
- Russian Intervention in the Donbas
- The Russian General Staff's Role in Executing the Crimea and Donbas Campaigns
- Executing the Donbas Operation
- Key Decisions, Actors, and Relationships in the Ukraine Conflict
- Lessons Learned by the General Staff from Crimea and the Donbas
- ch. Six The General Staff in a Practical Context: Syria Case Study
- Russian Intervention in Syria
- Command and Control and Chain of Command in Syria
- Syria Key Decisions, Actors, and Relationships
- Key Lessons Learned
- ch. Seven Drawing Conclusions About the Role of the General Staff in National Security Decisionmaking
- Formal and Informal Systems Inform Decisionmaking
- Divining Priorities from Organizational Structure.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 105-120)
- ISBN:
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- OCLC:
- 1374794960
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