Returning Context to Our Doctrine

Before Russia invaded Ukraine, many analysts saw Russian military doctrine as “clear, precise, well evidenced and conceptually elegant.” They believed Russia posed a threat to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The RAND Corporation estimated that Russia could overrun the Baltics in three days.

Instead, when Russia tried such a lightning campaign to rapidly decapitate the Ukrainian government by seizing Kyiv, it suffered an embarrassing defeat. It failed because its military did not prepare to fight a war in such a context.