Lessons from Afghanistan: Russian Counterinsurgency Strategy in Chechnya
Lessons from Afghanistan: Russian Counterinsurgency Strategy in Chechnya

Summary/Abstract: All actors on the international arena, including great powers, do have vulnerabilities. What some authors and political leaders call GWOT (global war on terror) is a part of the set of strategically significant realities which make these vulnerabilities more important and more obvious. The study evaluates the ability of the Russian security establishment to cope with both terrorist attacks and irregular warfare in difficult geographic conditions (like those in Afghanistan and, more recently, in Chechnya). One of the main conclusions is that Russian military failed to integrate the Afghan combat experience in the plans of early military operations against Chechen rebels. A question still stay unsolved: Did the Western Powers (and above all USA) manage to properly integrate the lessons offered by Soviet and Russian failures in their own counterinsurgency campaigns?

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