Considering Russia
Emergence of a Near Peer Competitor
Edited by Matthew R. Slater, Michael Purcell, and Andrew M. Del Gaudio
ABOUT THE BOOK
Considering Russia helps us understand the implications for strategy and military planning behind Russia’s failure to integrate, as was maybe too naively expected, into the Euro-Atlantic and global economic and security architecture. Russia’s renewed assertiveness has created what might look like a new adversarial geopolitical context. This unexpected reality prompted the authors to analyze Russian military capability, tactics, and operational concepts, both through the contemporary filter of events in Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria, as well as the historical legacy of the Soviet Union. All of the authors, whether writing about the idea of hybrid warfare or the potential for conventional conflict in the Baltic region, uncover the continuities and novelties of the current situation and o er recommendations grounded in their professional experience with U.S. security policy as well as the Marine Corps.
ABOUT THE EDITORS
Matthew R. Slater received his MA and PhD in International Studies from Old Dominion University and researches the dynamics surrounding environmental security (e.g. water scarcity, food scarcity, conflict), strategic culture and Latin American-US security relations. He is employed at the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab and supports the implementation of Marine Corps warfighting concepts. Slater also mentors Marine Corps University, Command and Staff College students throughout the thesis process.
Andrew M. Del Gaudio retired from the Marine Corps in 2019 as an Infantry Officer. He is a graduate of the Marine Corps’ School of Advanced Warfighting and received a PhD from the University of Liverpool in 2012 in history. His dissertation examined the German defense of the Baltic States in 1944.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Russia’s Emerging Security Strategy
Dr. Matthew R. Slater
Chapters:
1. Russian Military Reform, Exercises, and Current Operations: Indicators of Future Actions?
Maj Jason C. Armas
2. Baltic Flashpoint: Collective Defense for the Twenty-First Century
Maj A. J. Goldberg
3. Cold War Redux: Shaping the Arctic as Strategic Maneuver Space
Maj Stephen E. DeTrinis
4. The Evolution of Russian Nonlinear Warfare
Maj Anthony Mercado
5. Russia’s Military Resurgence and Adoption of Nonlinear Warfare: Comprehension and Response
Maj Isaac D. Moore
6. Key Strategic Terrain of the Baltic: The Role of Geography in Shaping the History of War
LtCol Andrew M. Del Gaudio (PhD)