Full Description
This book explores the politics of military exercises in Europe between 1975 and 2018, revealing how NATO, the Soviet Union, and Russia have used exercises as political tools and how these activities shaped and reflected their perception of the threat environment. Drawing on extensive archival research and expert interviews, this work offers an examination of (and reflection on) European security by combining a detailed analysis of military exercises across three distinct periods (1975-1990, 1991-2013, 2014-2018) with an exploration of the development of Confidence- (and Security-) Building Measures, bridging Cold War and contemporary security environments. Studies of military exercises in the past have mostly focused on actors' capabilities or on isolated exercises. What sets the present book apart is that it reveals how strategic culture shapes threat perception and, therefore, demonstrates how NATO and Russia interpret military exercises differently based on their interpretation of what is considered "security". By exploring the politics of military exercises across three distinct periods, the analysis identifies how culturally-driven factors that contribute to international actors' threat perception have a hand in shaping security dynamics. This book will be of interest to academics, researchers, policymakers, and graduate students in the fields of European security, NATO-Russia relations, strategic culture, and international relations more broadly.
Contents
Introduction Section 1: Openness, Confidence, and Duplicity 1. The Political Exercise Emerges: An Introduction to military exercises and signalling 2. Foundations Laid: The Emergence of Confidence-Building Measures and the Helsinki Final Act 3. The Stockholm Document: A new interpretation of 'Security' 1980-1989 4. Harmony and Discord in the City of Music: The Negotiation of the Vienna Documents 5. Turbulent Undercurrents: The Negotiations of CSBMs in Europe 1994-2013 6. Wherefore art thou, Confidence? Exploring the absence of new CSBMs in Europe 7. The missing span: Challenges and contradictions in the C(S)BM regime Section 2: Smoke, Mirrors, and the Fall: Soviet and NATO Exercises, 1975 - 1990 8. Feeling the Heat: The pattern and structure of exercises, 1975 - 1990 9. Through the Looking Glass: NATO and Soviet Responses to Exercises Section 3: The Calm and the Storm, 1991 - 2013 10. A Slow Return to a New Russia: The pattern and function of NATO and Russian Exercises 1991 - 2013 11. Betwixt and Between: NATO and Russian Responses to Exercises Section 4: Dangerous Unpredictability: 2014 - 2018 12. The New is Old Again: The Pattern and Structure of NATO and Russian Exercises, 2014-2018 13. Stilted Conversation: The Function of Russian and NATO Exercises 14. Rough Communication Section 5: Chasing Shadows in the Dark: 15. Exercises, Confidence-Building, and Misaligned Threat Perception
