THE RUSSIAN UNDERSTANDING OF WAR Blurring the Lines between War and Peace

This book analyzes the evolution of Russian military thought and how Russia’s current thinking about war is reflected in recent crises. While other books describe current Russian practice, Oscar Jonsson provides the long view to show how Russian military strategic thinking has developed from the Bolshevik Revolution to the present.

What Jonsson reveals is that Russia’s conception of the very nature of war is now changing, as Russian elites see information warfare and political subversion as the most important ways to conduct contemporary war. This book provides much needed context and analysis to be able to understand recent Russian interventions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, how to deter Russia on the eastern borders of NATO, and how the West must also learn to avoid inadvertent escalation.

Oscar Jonsson is during 2019 Director of the Stockholm Free World Forum (Frivärld), a Swedish foreign and security policy think tank, and associated researcher at the Swedish Defence University. Previously, he was a subject-matter expert at the Policy and Plans Department at the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters.