Military Science and Russia's Security

Military Thought, March, 2001 by S.A. Tyushkevich

A characteristic feature of science as a whole and military science in particular at the present stage is an extremely fast acceleration of its development accompanied by changes in the content and structure of scientific knowledge. Both old and new concepts are used for the elucidation of versatile ties and relations of reality. The latter, however, tend to expand the most the limits of human knowledge and express the main trends in its advance: differentiation, specialization, interconnection and integration of sciences. Integration is in the lead in this sense, erasing as it does the boundaries between separate areas of military knowledge and other sciences and providing an opportunity for the employment of everything that may be of use to the national Armed Forces. To a no small degree this is assisted by the fact that the military science is expressly applied and practical. For example, theoretical and applied knowledge in military affairs was for centuries subordinated to the attainment of one goal--th e winning of a political and strategic victory over an adversary via a direct clash of troops (forces).

In the 19th century, when war acquired some clearly expressed signs of being a special state of society (armies became massive, qualitatively new relations emerged between warfare, economy, social and mental factors, etc.), the military science climbed to a higher level of theoretical generalization. At the juncture of the 19th and 20th centuries, Russian military science made what was on the whole a correct estimate of the nature of future warfare and its methods, as well as the role of the economic and moral factors. Yet, being under the influence of a number of objective circumstances, military theorists failed to make an in-depth study of many strategic and particularly military-political problems. The military science was in a crisis, with a rift developing between theory and practice.

The collapse of the bipolar world, frequent local conflicts, a growing activity of international terrorism and the continued military-technical revolution (development of non-lethal weapons) have become the determining factors of a substantial change in the direction that military science followed in its development. Its paradigm has become different over time as well: the deterrence factor has taken the place of victory (as the goal of warfare), if not universally. For example, a threatened employment of mass destruction weapons (MDW) in large-scale combat operations would deter the aggressive spirit of the sides, whereas in local conflicts and wars where they are not used the goal as before is destroying the adversary.

Coming to the fore today is the problem of military security. In this connection, military investigations have focused on representing the modem military-political situation, the character (political, strategic, military-technical) of future wars and armed clashes, and the modem nature of military affairs, particularly armed forces, as an integrated system, which functions and develops in accordance with definite laws (regularities). As is to be regretted, military science to the present day does not have a sufficiently substantiated system of scientific laws. Results of scientific investigations that lack a common strategic concept and have been conducted on a quite vague methodological basis are not quite impressive. As is common knowledge, the laws a scientific discipline boasts form the framework supporting its content as expressed in concepts, categories, etc. Scientific laws are the means, the logical tool that helps interpret facts, phenomena and processes. Alexander Ghertsen wrote this in his time: " When a general law is known, you look for it in a particular case, not by analogy with other phenomena alone but out of logical necessity." [1]

In the modern conditions, thinking of the development of scientific law-based fundamental theories and concepts of military science, one should primarily focus on its applied part, whose content is usually expressed in military-strategic documents of the state and its Armed Forces, and in corresponding directives, manuals, regulations, etc.

History of the Russian military science, if it is regarded as a unity of its fundamental and applied parts, shows that it reflects the social system, specifics of the political system of our state, as well as the character and direction of its policy. But development and functional direction were likewise always influenced by the dialectic of development of the world community. The higher the international (regional and world) tensions the more military dangers and threats appeared before Russia, the more that stimulated the military thought and increased the demand for military science. For example, the weak theoretical study of the above-mentioned problem has become one of the reasons why the reform of the Russian Armed Forces in the last decade boiled down mostly to personnel reductions. Affected in the process was the rational balance between the Armed Forces services, which, as is common knowledge, is the principal condition of all development and efficiency.