Sample Content
Preface to Elite Warriors
Just pretend this is text from the preface of Elite Warriors…
In autumn 2015, just over two weeks after the start of the Russian military operation in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke at the annual Valdai International Discussion Club forum. A Russian participant asked the head of state whether it made sense to get involved. After all, the risks were high, losses inevitable and combat actions unpredictable. In addition, there was no exit strategy, which could entail long-term negative consequences. “Fifty years ago, the streets of Leningrad taught me one rule: If a fight is inevitable, you have to strike first,” Putin responded without missing a beat.
This quip was later often cited as a typical example of how the Russian leader understands political actions and the essence of international politics. However, it is equally important to note that it was said specifically about the Middle East.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, that region remained on the periphery of Russian diplomacy for a time. Foreign policy was so focused on trying to make Russia a part of the “expanded West” and integrate it into the “community of civilized nations” that it simply retreated from many parts of the world (both intentionally and due to a lack of resources). This was especially true of regions that had been an area of stiff competition between the USSR and the West. The Middle East was not only one such region, but was perhaps the most important arena of ideological and geopolitical confrontation, second only to Europe. And it is fairly symbolic that the Syrian conflict became a pretext for Russia’s military-political return to the international arena as a full-fledged superpower and top player. This has been a Russian foreign policy goal – at times tacit, then openly declared – since the early 1990s.
The Great Game of the second half of the 20th century played out to a considerable degree in the Middle East. It was not a periphery, since it was close to Europe, the main arena of a systemic confrontation between the East and West. Meanwhile, decolonization had created almost limitless possibilities for competition between the new “masters of the world” – the USSR and the US. The sociopolitical systems that the leaders of the regional states embraced (capitalism or socialism) did not play a principal role – both were given a markedly local flavor. However, competition for geopolitical loyalty oriented toward either Moscow or Washington took on very harsh forms. The region was rocked by political cataclysms – coups, wars, religious and ethnic persecutions. However, despite it all, this bipolar confrontation paradoxically ensured a kind of stability. To be more exact, the dividing lines were clear, and were enforced not so much by the [local] governments as by the “big brothers.”
The Middle East was supposed to be the beginning of a “new world order” as envisioned by optimists at the end of the cold war. The first proving ground was Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, which was met with unprecedented rejection by the entire global community. For the first time (which turned out to be the last), Moscow and Washington acted together in favor of an international military operation to liberate Kuwait and punish Iraq for its aggression. Operation Desert Storm in early 1991 seemed to mark a new era of postconfrontation, ushering in a joint approach to solving global problems, including through force. Even a few years earlier, such a thing was impossible in principle: The region, and in fact the entire world, was divided into spheres of influence in which the global patrons guaranteed military and political protection to their protégés against their opponents and the opposing superpower.
Routing Iraq from Kuwait did not usher in an era of new global politics, for the simple reason that the system of two superpowers ceased to exist when one of them disappeared. The balance of forces that had determined the situation in the world for more than four decades was suddenly replaced by the dominance of the US, the only “hyperpower” (to use the terminology of French politician Hubert Védrine). Russia, the legal successor of the Soviet Union, withdrew from the competition. Meanwhile, the Middle East was left hanging: The powerful wave of democratization that shook the world in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Eastern Europe, Central Eurasia, the Far East, Africa, Latin America) essentially passed this region by.
However, stability [in the Middle East] turned out to be illusory. The disappearance of the cold war hastened what Zbigniew Brzezinski called a global awakening. The rise of international terrorism, whose most obvious roots can be traced to the Middle East, combined with the hobbling of the entire system of regime-states born of decolonization in the early and mid-20th century to turn the region into a ticking time bomb and then an inferno of global significance. After Sept. 11, 2001, events began to develop incredibly quickly. In the 15 years between 2001 and 2016, the Middle East experienced just about all forms of turmoil – outside interference, civil wars, an explosion of religious extremism, the collapse of political systems and the disintegration of entire states. As has always been the case historically, these changes were largely driven by the great powers. Their interventions – especially those undertaken by the US – destroyed the existing order and provoked a chaotic and practically uncontrollable transformation.
Why was the Middle East the specific place where Russia returned to the stage as a global player? There are several reasons. The first is Russia’s vulnerability to the threat of the Middle East’s radicalization – something that Russia, given its large Muslim population, has faced since the 1990s. In this sense, Putin’s aforementioned remark easily fits the logic of countering distant threats before they inevitably reach Russia.
Moreover, the Middle East is the region that best fits Russia’s foreign policy “toolkit,” so to speak: i.e., sufficiently effective modern Armed Forces and the ability to use them (especially after the reforms of the late 2000s and early 2010s); a solid knowledge of the region gathered during the Soviet Union’s activity there; a strong and professional diplomatic tradition; the Middle East’s weariness of unopposed US dominance, which had become increasingly dysfunctional since the start of the 21st century; post-Soviet Russia’s lack of ideological dogmas that would limit room for maneuvering; and an adherence to realpolitik, which suits the Middle Eastern states much better than any other approach.
All these factors came together in the mid-2010s, when all the concepts that various players had been trying to implement in this part of the world simply fell through. Meanwhile, the region itself had descended into the chaos of deconstruction, with the possibility of a complete loss of control. Russia unexpectedly became a game-changer that altered the dynamics of the situation.
Of course, only time will tell whether it changed or simply stalled that momentum. Six to eight years ago, it seemed that the Middle East was a festering wound in an otherwise steadily developing world. The feeling is different today – the Middle East is both a reflection and the quintessence of the highly complex changes affecting the entire world order.
This collection of articles presents views and findings from the best Russian experts, standing diplomats and statesmen, prominent politicians and public figures. Contributors include the late Yevgeny Primakov, dean of the Russian diplomatic and intelligence corps; current Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov; current Minister of Energy Alexander Novak; Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and others.
While each article in our collection deals with a specific issue or element related to the Middle East in general and Russia’s foreign policy in the region, in their entirety they provide a window into the dynamic evolution of attitudes and views espoused by the Russian expert community and policymakers. They fit together within a comprehensive system of analysis, forecasts and scenarios of foreign relations in the region and beyond.
Fyodor Lukyanov
Editor in chief, Russia in Global Affairs
Chairman, Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy
Research Director, Valdai International Discussion Club
Reviews
Reviewed by Dave Majumdar, The National Interest
The Best (Non-American) Special Forces on Earth
Edited by Ruslan Pukhov and Christopher Marsh, Elite Warriors: Special Operations Forces From Around the World is an excellent, methodically researched study of various special mission units from around the globe. While information about well-known American and British special operations forces such as the U.S. Army’s elite Delta Force, the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team Six or the UK’s Special Air Service (SAS) units is fairly commonplace, researchers at Russia’s Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) have assembled detailed profiles of foreign units from Russia, Ukraine China and others that cannot be found anywhere else….
The book fulfills its mission to fill the “gap by covering the history and current operating environment of the special operations forces of fourteen countries of the world, including many that have tended to get less attention in the English language media, such as Algeria, Italy, and Poland, for example,” as Marsh writes. Indeed, some of the best and most detailed chapters in the book are on foreign special operations forces familiar only to dedicated regional specialists….
Overall, Elite Warriors: Special Operations Forces From Around the World is an exceptionally well-researched booked and forms a valuable resource for scholars studying special operations forces—particularly those that are not of American or British origin. Each one of the chapters—which are essentially stand alone research papers—offer detailed analyses of various nations’ forces—often with details not found anywhere else. Scholars in Washington will find the sections on Russia, Ukraine, Iran and China to be particularly useful.
Read the full review on The National Interest
Reviewed by Henry Foy, Financial Times
Moscow, a city of monuments, plaques and commemorations, has a new statue. A short walk from memorials to Alexander Pushkin and Sergei Rachmaninoff, and clutching the assault rifle that bears his name, a bronze Mikhail Kalashnikov rises 30 feet above the city.
The statue of a man whose AK-47 rifle kills an estimated 250,000 people each year has caused controversy among Muscovites who prefer the country’s poets, playwrights and composers along their commute.
But Kalashnikov, a former tank commander honoured by Joseph Stalin for designing the AK-47 as a solution to complaints from Red Army soldiers about their guns, is an apt memorial to the belligerent Russia of past conflicts. Today, battalions of thousands of men armed with mass-produced rifles are out; shadowy special forces are very much in.
Ripe time, then, for Elite Warriors, a book that sets out to profile 14 of the world’s special forces, while proposing that the future of warfare will revolve around these units.
Continue reading the review on ft.com
Reviewed by Matthew Bodner, Defense News
Elite Warriors’: A refreshingly Eastern perspective on special forces
MOSCOW — Advocates of nuclear weapons like to play up their peacekeeping utility. Often they will point out that there has not been a major war between great powers since the end of World War II. But as history has shown, conflict remains a regular facet of international relations. Only the means of conflict have changed; and since the 1980s, this process has accelerated.
A new book authored by experts from the Moscow-based Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, or CAST, titled Elite Warriors: Special Operations Forces From Around the World, explores one of these key changing aspects of modern war: the proliferation of special operations forces by major and minor powers across the globe.
Elite Warriors represents one of CAST’s broadest analytical efforts to date and one of the first such studies dedicated to special operations forces. Previously, CAST’s outfit of military and political analysts in Russia have focused on single-issue topics, as seen in their book “Brothers Armed: Military Aspects of the Crisis in Ukraine,” as well as the China-focused “Red Star Rising.”
… Of particular interest to American readers, given CAST’s status as a leading Russian military affairs think tank, are the two chapters detailing the development of modern Russian special operations forces. Russia’s development of its modern special operations forces is a key example of states mimicking the development of U.S. special forces since the 1980s.
… Overall, these two chapters present possibly the best English-language overview of Russia’s special forces units today.
The remainder of the book provides no less rigorous overviews of various national special forces efforts. It is always worth reading the works of Russian scholars on nations such as Iran, for example, with which Moscow is generally more familiar than Western scholars. Ultimately, the value in Elite Warriors is for reference and support for further research efforts.
Read the full review on Defense News
Reviewed by Bruce McClintock, Joint Force Quarterly
…In Elite Warriors, Ruslan Pukhov and Christopher Marsh aim to provide accessible, high-quality comparative research on the elite SOF of 14 countries. They achieve some of their lofty objectives and add value to the important field of literature on special operations. …
The strength of Elite Warriors is the variety of authors and their use of native-language sources, often from mass media and generally current, as well as other authoritative material. The generous use of footnotes makes the book a worthwhile resource for those who want a guide to other useful material…. [T]he material in Elite Warriors is valuable and the book is an ideal primer for someone without a background in special operations who wants to learn the basics about foreign military elites and have a guide to other useful sources.
Read the full review on Joint Force Quarterly
Learn more about Elite Warriors