The Russian Military: Power and Policy
| DOI | 10.1177/002234330604300619 |
| Published date | 01 November 2006 |
| Date | 01 November 2006 |
| Author | Ismene Gizelis |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
statistical analysis is accessible to most prac-
titioners and provides interesting findings with
serious policy implications, as the author points
out in the concluding chapter. Overall, the book
reads easily and it is appropriate for both scholars
and students of international relations, conflict
studies, US foreign policy, and military history.
This book can also be used in teaching under-
graduate upper division and graduate courses
because of the clarity of ideas, the use of simple
but clarifying empirical analysis and the extensive
use of case studies that cover the whole historical
spectrum of US foreign policy.
Ismene Gizelis
Miller, Steven E. & Dmitri Trenin, eds,
2004. The Russian Military: Power and Policy.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. vii + 249 pp. ISBN
0262633051.
Miller & Trenin have compiled a fairly compre-
hensive edited volume on the Russian military.
The book examines and assesses the role of the
military for Russian policy today. The book is
based on three principal questions which are
essential to understand the Russian military. First,
the authors explain the apparent lack of reform
despite the often dire conditions. Second, they
address the resilience and political passivity of the
Russian army as a state institution. Lastly, they try
to identify ways that the Russian military will be
relevant in the 21st century and the formulation
of Russian foreign policy. Each one of these topics
is of interest to practitioners and scholars of
security studies, international relations and com-
parative politics. The issue of political passivity is
puzzling, since Russia has avoided the militariza-
tion of its society, unlike the experience of other
countries that have been through deep political
and economic transitions. Equally important is to
understand the link between military power and
Russian foreign policy, both at the regional and
the global level. Although the questions are inter-
esting and quite relevant given the ambivalent
political role of Russia in Central Asia and
Eastern Europe, the book as a whole lacks theor-
etical perspective. Most of the chapters have a
plethora of information, but they are primarily
descriptive rather than analytical. Thus, the
appeal of the book is somewhat limited, as none
of the chapters develops a strong argument that
can elaborate the link between the role of the
military and Russian political objectives, both
domestically and internationally. Despite its limi-
tations, this book can be of use to upper division
courses in security studies or Russian foreign
policy.
Ismene Gizelis
Pirages, Dennis & Ken Cousins, eds, 2005.
From Resource Scarcity to Ecological Security:
Exploring New Limits to Growth. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press. 268 pp. ISBN 0262661896.
In the vast literature investigating global environ-
mental change, a small number of writings stand
out for the debates they have triggered, the fore-
casts they have made, and their enduring influ-
ence. This innovative volume is constructed
around two such works – The Limits to Growth
(1972) and The Global 2000 Report to the
President (1980). An accomplished group of
researchers assesses the predictions made by these
two studies against the mixed evidence of the last
thirty years, discusses challenges that were not
anticipated, and develops its own forecasts and
concrete policy recommendations. The unifying
argument is that debate ‘has moved beyond
impending environmental limits to resource-
intensive growth to more general concerns over
future ecological security’ (p. 3). Natural resource
scarcity remains an issue, but the acute shortages
and high prices for minerals, food, water, and
energy predicted in the 1970s and 1980s have, on
the whole, not transpired. Instead, resource
scarcity has become one dimension, and not the
most serious one, of a broader issue set that
includes climate change, bioinvasions and
zoonotic diseases, challenges amplified by poverty
and institutional failure. The volume contains
concise and compelling discussions of demo-
graphic change (family planning and lethal
diseases have slowed their growth rate, but new
challenges linked to an aging population in the
north have emerged); food and water (more than
expected but poverty affects access); energy
(climate change may be more important than fuel
shortages); biodioversity loss (previously not an
issue); and the mobility of invasive species and
infectious disease (previously not an issue). This
volume provides an informed snapshot of where
we stand, where we are headed, and what we
should consider doing.
Richard Matthew
journal of PEACE RESEARCH volume 43 / number 6 / november 2006
756
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