The questionable performance of the Russian armed forces in the conflict
in Georgia in 2008 provided the impetus for a program of far-reaching
reform in the Russian military. The progress of this reform has been the
subject of intensive study, including in a number of monographs issued
by the Strategic Studies Institute. But as Mr. Keir Giles and Dr. Andrew
Monaghan describe in this Paper, the most recent phase of military
transformation in Russia allows conclusions to be drawn about the final
shape of the Russian military once the process is complete-and about the
range of threats, some of them unrecognizable to us, that is guiding
that process. In this monograph, the authors use a wide range of Russian
language sources and interviews to illustrate not only the Russian
threat assessments highlighting the United States as a potential
aggressor, but also the many unique challenges facing Russia in renewing
and rearming its military.