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...to a significant extent determined the school's own function and specialization. After all, it was not accidental that the imperial ordinance that inaugurated the Academy described it as a "special strategic school."
During 175 years of its history the Strategy Chair and the General Staff Academy as a whole went through long and difficult development. It was an entire epoch filled with selfless work of generations upon generations of professors and teachers. The Department is proud by right of a galaxy of Russian military theorists who formed its staff in different years. Some of them--N.V. Medem, M.I. Bogdanovich, G.A. Leher, N.P. Mikhnevich, A.A. Neznamov, A.A. Svechin, A.E. Snesarev, I.I. Vatsetis, A.M. Zajonchkovsky--are classics of military strategy.
Currently the Strategy Department is a leading teaching and research division of the General Staff Academy, unique in the military pedagogical context both in this country and elsewhere. Considering processes afoot in the world and within the armed forces of advanced nations as well as changes in the Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation, the Department defined these vectors in military research: developing the fundamentals of military science, military doctrine and military strategy; assuring national security against outside and, where the Armed Forces are concerned, inside military threats; substantiating the nature of modern wars; preparing the nation for defense; preserving and developing the national defense-industrial complex; improving the military education system. There are on its staff such prominent military scientists, doctors of sciences and professors as S.A. Bartenev, N.P. Klokotov, A.M. Nikonov, Y.A. Moshchenko, V.M. Lisovoy, A.V. Piskunov, A.V. Demidyuk, D.V. Gordiyenko, A.V. Serzhantov and others.
Its scientists, professors and teachers consistently generalize the experience of operational training of Russia Armed Forces, and lessons of modern wars and armed conflicts, counter-terrorist and peace operations in different regions of the world.
There is no doubt, however, that the main subject of its teaching effort and studies is the theory and practice of military strategy whose content is rapidly enriched and developed in this epoch of revolutions in science and technology and in military affairs.
This anniversary article makes an attempt to survey the military strategic views on the nature of modern wars and armed conflicts and on how it tends to be modified in the short and mid term.
In the first place, let me present the subject area of military strategy as a component of Russian military art.
It is accepted that military strategy is a combination of theoretical and practical activities of the state in the sphere of national military security. The view on the substance of these activities took shape on the basis of a theoretical rationalization of the record of past wars.
Speaking about the theoretical part of military strategy, it is a system of scientific knowledge primarily about the nature of modern wars and ways of preventing them by military means, about national preparations for defense, and about the methods and forms of war as such and military operations on the strategic scale. Its another component is the area of practical activities by the national leaders and the top military leadership that are aimed at preparing this country for defense and at directing the armed forces in military operations.
Historically it is the war that is the object of practical and cognizance activities for military strategy. But war is a complex and multi-faceted social and political phenomenon that in our day and age cannot be studied within the framework of just one discipline. Its different aspects are being examined by social, natural, technical, military and other sciences. Each of these concentrates on certain aspects, connections and processes of war that fall within its scope.
This is why we accept that it is the main, specific aspect of war--armed warfare--in its top, strategic echelon encompassing many aspects of its preparation, conduct and prevention that is the subject of activities and learning in the area of military strategy.
It must be noted that defining the subject of military strategy means displaying its substance; usually this act is of informative nature. It means it contains a number of divisions that reflect its theoretical and practical sphere. The said divisions, structural or functional, form the main...
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