Unlike previous downsizings of the military forces which were called reforms, the present military reform is designed to essentially change all the forces. Its preparation took a long time. Although officially it was launched at the end of 2008, the first ideas that the Russian Military would have to be effective, used at peacetime and in war and be maintainable by the country emerged as early as 2005. This reform is going to take a long time and will be carried out in stages. Though it is planned to be completed by 2020, it has reached the point today that makes it impossible to go back to the pre-reform state. With the Russian political authorities showing their strong will to complete it, in 2012-2015 nearly all structural reorganizations will be finished and the remaining years will be devoted to rearmament. After successful implementation of the reform, the Russian Armed Forces may become one of the best militaries in the world. This study is intended to discuss the objectives of the reform, peculiarities of its stages, the foreseeable result as well as the ways which the Russian political authorities plan to use to achieve this result.
This study will discuss briefly the history of missile defense, the concept of its design, created by a pioneer of the system-the USA-, as well as differences and similarities of three different and more or less functional missile defense systems existing today. The indirect influence and impact of a missile defense system to defense policies and international relations will be presented in brief as well. Additionally, the following points of popular discussion will be addressed: the potential of missile defense to substitute nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence and its role as an instrument of propaganda and pretext to justify actions will be discussed in more detail. At the end of the study, based on all the prior-named features of the missile defense system organization design and known differences of existing US, NATO and Russian missile defense systems, the feasibility of the creation of a single missile defense system, proposed by Russia, will be explored.
This article provides an assessment of the defense efforts undertaken by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania since 2014. This analysis is focused on national efforts in the field of military defense and societal resilience. The assessment of defense efforts undertaken by the Baltic states has been based on their pragmatic perception of threats, development of military capabilities, and preparations in the field of civil resilience. The research references publicly available governmental documents of the Baltic states, such as security and defense strategies and concepts, defense plans, and budgets. It discusses recent research and analytical works in the field of and defense of the Baltic states. The research suggests that despite national modalities, all of the Baltic states are implementing core elements of the comprehensive defense. Although there is solid progress in implementing comprehensive defense in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, there are still many challenges ahead.
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