{"title":"Review Essay: “We Carried Out Our [International] Duty!”: The Soviet Union, Cuito Cuanavale, and Wars of National Liberation in Southern Africa","authors":"A. Hill","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2021.1923993","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2021.1923993","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This review essay examines the nature, extent, and significance of the Soviet military commitment to Angola from 1975 onwards and at the same time surveys the highlights of the Russian-language literature on the subject and reviews the recent publication, ‘Mi svoi dolg vipolnili!’ Angola: 1975–1992 from the Russian Union of Angola War Veterans.","PeriodicalId":236132,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126761434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Defending a River line: The Soviet World War II Experience","authors":"L. Grau","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2021.1923986","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2021.1923986","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Large rivers, canals, and lakes dominate Eurasia and serve as major arteries of commerce and industry, defensive barriers, lines of communication, and avenues of advance. During the Great Patriotic War (the Soviet Union’s War with Germany during World War II), the Soviets conducted defenses that integrated large rivers. During the defensive phase of the War (1941–1942), they defended along the Don, Northern Donets, Volga, and Neva Rivers, as well as smaller rivers. The most famous is the Volga-Don River defense, which incorporated the Battle of Stalingrad. In the Russian view, the river is often the determining factor in selecting the forward line of defense when establishing a durable and stable defense. Engineer preparation of the battlefield in front of that forward line is critical, as is a well-organized and integrated system of fire. Both banks of the water obstacle are usually prepared for the defense. Forces permitting, the operational defense of a water obstacle is conducted in two echelons or by maintaining a strong combined arms reserve.","PeriodicalId":236132,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"147 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123492661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Why the 1955 Austrian State Treaty Bans U-Boats","authors":"J. Hickman","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2021.1923981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2021.1923981","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Why the 1955 Austrian State Treaty that restored Austria’s sovereignty to its landlocked 1938 borders also bans it from deploying submarines is a foreign policy puzzle submerged in a political joke. The idea that Austria would deploy U-boats in the Danube was as preposterous in 1955 as it is today. A political joke is successful when it elicits amusement at awareness of some unrecognized or unspoken truth about power by exposing the contradiction between narratives or interpretive scripts. That Article 13 of the penultimate peace treaty of the Second World War in Europe prohibits submarines along with a list of other more plausible weapons performs the work of a political joke because further investigation reveals important material about the post-war settlement during the early Cold War. Analysis of this penultimate peace treaty of the Second World War in Europe indicates that the submarine ban was likely the product of traumatic recent historical memory, overwrought historical and geopolitical anxiety, and a determination to burden Austria with an arms limits nearly identical to those in the 1947 peace treaties with Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary, even though the burden was entirely symbolic. The 1947 peace treaty with Italy included no comparable submarine ban. The drafters of the 1955 treaty appear to have been trapped, seemingly compelled by irrational motives, to include a provision that offered no additional security to the victorious powers but instead required an empty sacrifice. The irony of the submarine ban symbolically burdening Austria is it that may have been aimed indirectly at (West) Germany, whose U-boats were iconic weapons in both world wars and which deployed and exported military submarines during the Cold War. Moreover, Germany was not subjected to a submarine ban in the 1990 Final Settlement with Respect to Germany or ‘Two Plus Four’ Treaty, the final peace treaty of the Second World War.","PeriodicalId":236132,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127411477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Military History of the Cold War, 1962–1991","authors":"A. Hill","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2021.1923988","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2021.1923988","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":236132,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123829305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Walter. Leningrad: The Advance of Panzer Group 4","authors":"D. Stahel","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2021.1923990","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2021.1923990","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":236132,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122586095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Between Russia’s ‘Hybrid’ strategy and Western Ambiguity: Assessing Georgia’s Vulnerabilities","authors":"N. Nilsson","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2021.1923992","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2021.1923992","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Russia’s ‘hybrid’ strategy vis-à-vis neighboring countries highlights the importance of a comprehensive understanding of Russian methods of influence and how these approaches target domestic as well as external vulnerabilities in target states. This article examines the various resources that Russia deploys against Georgia in terms of military, economic, political/subversive and informational resources, displaying how material sources of power are reinforced through an anti-Western narrative, seeking to discredit the country’s integration within NATO and the EU. The article concludes that the current attention to narrative promotion in research on Russian foreign policy risks diverting attention from addressing strategic vulnerabilities, represented in this case by the West’s ambiguous strategy toward Georgia and other states in the EU’s Eastern neighborhood.","PeriodicalId":236132,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"2016 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125781070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Non-Science Fiction on Stalin and Norway","authors":"Sven G. Holtsmark","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2021.1923987","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2021.1923987","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT From the Editors: Due to an administrative error during the transition from the editorship of Alexander Hill to Martijn Lak, Mikhail Suprun’s article ‘The Liberation of Northern Norway in Stalin’s Post-War Strategy’ was published in The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Volume 33, Number 2 (2020) as sent to peer reviewers and therefore without having fully cleared the peer review process. The author of the article should have been asked to address at least the most significant of the reviewers’ concerns. The resultant exchange that follows is between one of the peer reviewers and the author of that article. Alexander Hill and Martijn Lak","PeriodicalId":236132,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"66 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129994395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Conceptual versus positivist approach?","authors":"M. Suprun","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2021.1923985","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2021.1923985","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":236132,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130724164","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Conventional War: Escalation in the War in Donbas, Ukraine","authors":"Ilmari Käihkö","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2021.1923984","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2021.1923984","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The War in Donbas was in its early phases largely fought between non-state volunteer battalions and separatist forces. Yet unlike the expected theories of non-state actors, the war witnessed limited and symmetrical acts of escalation and rather conventional warfare. Building on primary Ukrainian sources, I argue that this limited escalation stems in part from shared cultural and military norms — a common normative framework — possessed by the belligerents. The contribution of this article is an empirical chronology of the War in Donbas, as well as a discussion of the influence of culture and norms in escalatory dynamics and use of force.","PeriodicalId":236132,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129888987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Emerging as the ‘Victor’(?): Syria and Russia’s Grand and Military Strategies","authors":"Marina Miron, R. Thornton","doi":"10.1080/13518046.2021.1923991","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2021.1923991","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The war in Syria, given its complexity and geopolitical importance, has received much recent analytical attention. Although many perspectives have been covered, there is still a need in Western sources to view the conflict more through Russia’s lens. This article thus looks at how Russia has designed and executed its military strategy in Syria to fit into its overall grand strategy. It examines exactly how the Russian ‘strategy of limited actions’ has been employed and why Russia has now been proclaimed as the one true ‘victor’ in the whole Syrian imbroglio.","PeriodicalId":236132,"journal":{"name":"The Journal of Slavic Military Studies","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125659708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}