Russian Military Reform, 1992-2002

Military reform has featured prominently on the agenda of many countries since the end of the Cold War necessitated a re-evaluation of the strategic role of the armed forces, and nowhere more publicly than in Russia.

Not since the 1920s have the Russian Armed Forces undergone such fundamental change.

President Boris Yeltsin and his successor Vladimir Putin have both grappled with the issue, with varying degrees of success. An international team of experts here consider the essential features of Russian military reform in the decade since the disintegration of the USSR. Fluctuations in the purpose and priorities of the reform process are traced, as well as the many factors influencing change. Chapters analyse the development of Russia's security policy, structural reform of the services, the social impact of military service and experience of military conflict in Chechnya. Critical evaluations of the impact of social change on the Russian Armed Forces' capabilities and expectations complement the analysis of the on-going debate. Russian Military Reform, 1992-2002 will prove invaluable to all those interested in civil-military relationships and international security as well as to students of military theory and practice.

Roger N. McDermott is an Honourary Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Kent at Canterbury. He specialises in Russian and Central Asian defence and security. The Jane's Group have published a number of his papers.

Anne C. Aldis is Research Manager at the Conflict Studies Research Centre, Surrey where she has been an active analyst and facilitator of the processes of transformation taking place in the states of Central and Eastern Europe. For many years she has edited the centre's publications.