Упрощенная HTML-версия
Author : N. Efimov
Doctor of Science (Philosophy)
THE STRATEGIC STABILITY CONCEPT
was formulated as part of the Soviet-American
dialogue on nuclear arms limitation. The term
appeared much later in the Soviet-American
treaty on the liquidation of medium-range and
short-range missiles (1987) and the START-1
Treaty of 1991. Later, the term became an inte-
gral part of the political scientists' vocabulary to
be consistently used in Russian-American docu-
ments and official documents of the Russian
Federation.
Since the 1970s, the strategic stability phenomenon has been and remains within the spheres of in-
terest of academic communities in our country and abroad.
Academician Andrei Afanasievich Kokoshin treats the development of the strategic stability theory
as one of his priorities: "This is a comprehensive, multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary problem
calling for a constant attention of state leaders, military commanders, the Russian expert community
dealing with the national security problems, and academics working in different fields of scientific
knowledge."
In the last forty years, the works by Academician Kokoshin helped elaborate political-military con-
cepts pertaining to the operation and development of the Soviet/Russian "nuclear shield," as well
as the strategic stability theory.
Andrei Kokoshin is convinced that a barrier of sorts is the main aspect of stability. If it is overcome
as a result of external upheavals the military-strategic "superstructure" will acquire a new quality: it
will move away from interactions typical of the peacetime to an interaction described by the funda-
mentally different military logic which is a prelude to a nuclear war.
This barrier consists of several political-military factors including the correlation between:
- The political and military aims of a war in which nuclear weapons are used in different scopes and
different variants;
- The possibilities of using force to resolve crises and the material and technical means used to wage
this war;
- Repercussions of the use of these means.
It should be said that Andrei Kokoshin distinguishes between a "nuclear conflict" and a "nuclear
war" and points out that the former is much wider than the latter.
By way of summing up I deem it necessary to stress the predominantly applied nature of practically
everything that Academician Kokoshin has written so far. His scientific works can serve as one of
the sources of scientifically substantiated opinions about the ways to improve the structure and
composition of strategic nuclear forces of Russia and their fighting sustainability.
Электронное приложение к журналу «
Международная жизнь
»
Strategic Stability in World Politics