Russia in Global Affairs

Russian strategic culture does not need a radical overhaul. Rather, the 20th century suggests that the Achilles’ heel of Russian strategy has been the desire to simplify it and to define strategic goals on the basis of political ones. Politics is closely linked to strategy, but they speak different languages.

In 2020, about a year before the “escape from Kabul” drama began to unfold, the academic collection of essays entitled On Strategy: A Primer hit the shelves in the United States. Chief editor of this book Nathan Finney well represents the modern cohort of U.S. staff officers boasting a remarkable combination of professional military training and fundamental university education.