Toward a New International Security System? The challenges of Russian Military Reform

The new international system, despite the end of the Cold War, is not conflict-free; in fact, according to the author, there is a possibility that the foundation of global equilibrium in the first quarter of the 21st century will be laid on the construction of new military powers. In this article, Gutiérrez del Cid tackles the specific case of Russia and the restatement of its military view. Currently, she says, there are two trends in Russia in relation to the nuclear weapons policy to be followed: the minimalist and the maximalist. The minimalist think that nuclear weapons are a highly valuable instrument of foreign policy and favor the development of nuclear capacity only if the United States opts to build the National Missile Defense System; the maximalist, for their part, strive for nuclear weapons to have a wide range of use, a large stockpiled arsenal, and for nuclear capacity to develop independently from America’s strategic plans. According to the author, the fear of a western attack against Russian territory and sovereignty has encouraged closer relations between the two groups in favor of the maximalists: Yeltsin’s reformist government, that began with a plan of civil instead of military industrial reconversion, has changed its development strategy for one that again establishes reconstruction of the industrial military complex as a priority. On the other hand, Russian rearmament seems to have awakened the concern of the former soviet republics, which are also preparing themselves militarily in response. If the strategic interests of China, Japan and the United States are added to the above, the author concludes, the world may find itself on the thereshold of a new armaments race to the detriment of international security.