The collapse of the Soviet military The Soviet philosophy of war Party state and military structure How the military was manned The permanent war economy Military strategy Deciding to change course Defensive doctrine and arms reductions Glasnost and the public debate Legislating military reform The intractable party military connection The intractable military industrial sector The army and maintaining domestic order From force reductions to disintegration The August crisis Illusions of another chance The illusion of the CIS armed forces One of the great surprises in modern military history was the collapse of the Soviet Armed Forces in 1991 along with the party state with which it was inextricably intertwined. In this book a distinguished United States Army officer and scholar traces the rise and fall of the Soviet military arguing that it had a far greater impact on Soviet politics and economic development than was perceived in the West