Public Lecture: Russian Strategic Thought and Culture – From Bypassing Armed Struggle to the War in Ukraine, 1993-2025
In collaboration with the French Institute and the French Embassy in Latvia, the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga invites you to a public lecture on Russian strategic thought and culture in the context of the war in Ukraine, delivered by French specialist Dimitri Minic (the French Institute of International Relations). Everyone is welcome to attend.
The traditional and high-intensity war that has occurred in Ukraine since Russia decided to invade raises a key issue: did post-Soviet Russian strategic thought really prepare Russia for waging this war? An analysis of Russian military sources shows that the “special military operation” was not supposed to lead to such a war. Quite the contrary, it was part of the post-Soviet Russian military theorizing about bypassing armed struggle.
- How can post-Soviet Russian strategic thought and culture be defined?
- What impact have the “special military operation” and its initial failure had on Russian military theory?
- And what can be inferred about Russia’s potential future aggressive actions?
Dimitri Minic is a Research Fellow at Ifri’s Russia/Eurasia Center, where he also serves as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the digital collections Russie.Eurasie.
Dmitri is the author of Pensée et culture stratégiques russes: du contournement de la lutte armée à la guerre en Ukraine (Russian Strategic Thought and Culture: From Bypassing Armed Struggle to the War in Ukraine, Maison des sciences de l’homme, Paris, April 2023), a book that is based on his doctoral thesis and for which he received the Prize Albert Thibaudet 2023.
