Vision Impossible? Some Aspects of the Current Russian Debates about the Military Sciences

Abstract In 21st century military theory and doctrine, it is common to subdivide military capability into conceptual, physical and moral components. At least in theory, it follows that conceptual capability should be regarded as the crucial link between the physical and moral capabilities of a given military actor, as it concerns the ability of the actor to operationalise ideas about how to conduct modem warfare. Conceptual military capability can thus be defined as the sum of an actor’s military knowhow, scientific capacity and doctrine, which defines the expected ability of an actor to uphold an efficient language of military action, distribution and command.