A bolt from the blue: NATO’s misconception of Soviet military strategy

2025/11/03 by Walker Hayes Gargagliano
Social Sciences · Engineering · #European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies #Military Strategy and Technology #International Relations and Foreign Policy

paper · doi:10.1080/01402390.2025.2575310

Abstract

Throughout the Cold War, both NATO policymakers and the general public expressed a fear of a surprise Soviet attack, shaping their military stance, funding, and procurements in Europe to counter this eventuality. However, the type of war the Soviet Armed Forces planned to wage with the West was of a vastly different character than often feared. The concept of undertaking a strategic surprise attack in Europe was completely alien to Soviet theory, which rather conceptualized war as an extended affair requiring an extended mobilization process in a war which would be fought with total, rather than limited, objectives.

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