The Defense Council of the USSR
| Author | Hakan Karlsson |
| Published date | 01 March 1988 |
| Date | 01 March 1988 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/001083678802300202 |
The
Defense
Council
of
the
USSR
HÅKAN
KARLSSON
Karlsson,
H.
The
Defense
Council
of
the
USSR.
Cooperation
and
Conflict,
XXIII,
1988,
69-83.
The
article
contributes
to
the
study
of
the
Soviet
decision-making
structure
in
national
security
affairs,
focusing
on
one
important
but
shadowy
institution
at
the
highest
level
of
the
political
system:
the
Defense
Council
of
the
USSR.
An
attempt
is
made
to
determine
the
status
and
responsibilities
of
the
council,
as
well
as
its
likely
membership
and
operating
procedures,
through
various
analytical
approaches.
First,
the
evidence
available
from
the
official
Soviet
literature
on
the
Defense
Council
itself
is
marshaled.
Additional
insight
is
gained
from
the
material
on
historical
antecedents,
from
infor-
mation
about
analogous
institutions
in
East
European
countries,
and
from
statements
by
Soviet
officials.
In
analyzing
the
data,
particular
attention
is
paid
to
the
question
of
the
position
and
influence
of
the
Soviet
military.
The
analysis
supports
the
prop-
osition
that
current
institutional
arrangements
in
the
Soviet
Union
give
the
professional
military
privileged
access
to
the
national
security
decision-making
process.
1.
INTRODUCTION
Analyzing
the
institutional
setting
in
which
decisions
for
national
security
are
made
in
the
Soviet
Union
is
a
worthwhile
research
activity,
not
only
because
it
is
easier
to
sketch
the
organizational
environment
than
to
examine
the
de-
cision-making
process
itself,
but
also
because
the
organizational
structure
may
influence
the
making
of
decisions.
Or-
ganizational
arrangements
are
seldom
neutral.
On
the
contrary,
they
usually
tend
to
favor
some
institutional
par-
ticipant
in
the
decision-making
process.
The
study
that
follows
is
an
analysis
of
the
institutional
aspects
of
Soviet
defense
decision
making
at
the
highest
level,
with
special
emphasis
laid
on
the
position
and
influence
of
the
military
within
the
system.
2.
THE
DEFENSE
COUNCIL
IN
OFFICIAL
SOVIET
LITERATURE
The
most
important
decision-making
authority
in
the
Soviet
political
system
is
the
Political
Bureau
(Politburo)
of
the
Central
Committee
of
the
Communist
Party
of
the
Soviet
Union
(CPSU).
This
small
body
has
the
final
power
of
decision
on
all
matters
of
policy.
However,
there
is
also
at
the
apex
of
the
system
a
key
institution
dealing
specifically
with
defense
issues:
the
enigmatic
Defense
Council
of
the
USSR
(Sovet
Oborony
SSSR).
The
very
existence
of
this
special-
ized
top-level
body
was
not
openly
acknowledged
in
the
Soviet
Union
until
1976.
All
information
relating
to
the
Defense
Council
previously
had
been
kept
secret
by
the
Soviet
press,
although
in
the
early
1970s
Western
analysts
of
Soviet
military
affairs
were
certain
that
such
an
organ
did
in
fact
exist
(Gallagher
&
Spielmann
1972:18,
Mackintosh
1973:3,
Garthoff
1975:29,
Wolfe
1975:34-35).
It
is
now
known
that
Soviet
participants
in
the
SALT
negotiations
mentioned
it
to
their
American
interlocutors
(Jones
1984b:7).
The
first
public
disclosure
came
in
a
review
of
the
first
volume
of
the
Soviet
Military
Encyclopedia.
The
review
casually
referred
to
Leonid
Brezhnev,
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