Christoph Bluth | University of Bradford (original) (raw)

Papers by Christoph Bluth

Journal of Slavic Military Studies, May 26, 2010

ABSTRACT The military competition engendered by the Cold War provoked rapid and sustained innovat... more ABSTRACT The military competition engendered by the Cold War provoked rapid and sustained innovation in military technology. New information that has become available since the end of the Cold War permits a detailed reassessment of technical capabilities and developments in the Soviet Union, both with respect to strategic nuclear forces and to conventional weapons. This article shows that initially Soviet capabilities were subject to severe technical weaknesses that imposed major constraints on strategic options, but these were largely overcome by the 1980s. If the Soviet Union can be said to have lost the arms race, it was with respect to conventional technology. The article shows how in the perception of Soviet military planners the balance of power in Europe shifted against the Warsaw Pact in the 1980s.

Part 1 Britain and Germany in the new Europe. Part 2 The strategic aspects of European security: ... more Part 1 Britain and Germany in the new Europe. Part 2 The strategic aspects of European security: German strategic options, Peter Schmidt British policy options, Michael Clarke. Part 3 The institutional framework of European security: CSCE, Ingo Peters the future of NATO, Colin McInnes towards a common European security policy, Reimund Seidelmann. Part 4 Current policy issues in European security: arms control in Europe after the Cold War, Sir Hugh Beach Yugoslavia and the failure of collective security, Christopher Cviic burdensharing revisited, James Sperling migration from the East - German perceptions and policy, Barbara Marshall the view from the East, Christoph Bluth.

Cold War History, Apr 28, 2011

ABSTRACT

... Search. XML. To cite or link to this reference: http://hdl.handle.net/10068/427151\. Title : S... more ... Search. XML. To cite or link to this reference: http://hdl.handle.net/10068/427151. Title : Security dilemmas in Russia and Eurasia. Author : Allison, R. ; Corporate author : Royal Inst. of International Affairs, London (United Kingdom). ...

Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Jun 1, 2004

ABSTRACT The two central vectors of the military confrontation of the Cold War were the strategic... more ABSTRACT The two central vectors of the military confrontation of the Cold War were the strategic nuclear stand-off and the military confrontation in Europe. Both at a political and the military-technical level, the military balance in Europe was a central factor in the perception of the threat and the deliberations about strategy. This article examines the perception that the Warsaw Pact had of its opponent, the NATO alliance, in the military confrontation in Europe. It does so by looking at the evolution of the military balance in Europe and analyzes how military doctrine and strategy evolved in response to the military situation and the perceptions of NATO capabilities in doctrine, using documentation, from East German archives, that sheds new light on the controversies surrounding Warsaw Pact military strategy in Europe.

The central question with regard to the military confrontation in Europe was not about the deploy... more The central question with regard to the military confrontation in Europe was not about the deployments of troops, tanks, artillery and aircraft. It was about the intentions of the political actors involved. The nature and purposes of Soviet security policy were therefore critical to any analysis of the European security environment. Arms control proposals could not be developed purely on the basis of the deployment of forces. They would have to take into account defence requirements and military doctrine which defines strategy and needs to be understood to interpret the significance of the observed force posture. Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact attempted to interpret each other’s military doctrine and sought to draw conclusions about the significance of the force deployments of the other side. Internal documents show that the arms control proposals put forward during negotiations drew heavily on these conclusions about doctrine. One important difference between NATO and the Warsaw Pac...

The origins, dynamics and nature of the phenomenon we call the Cold War are the subjects of an en... more The origins, dynamics and nature of the phenomenon we call the Cold War are the subjects of an enormous volume of scholarly and popular literature. Not surprisingly, it contains a large range of different interpretations and viewpoints. During the Cold War period, the study of this phenomenon had significant import on current domestic, foreign and security policies and was therefore very controversial and laden with ideological baggage of one kind or another. The end of the Cold War resulted in the opening of archives in East and West resulting in access to primary documents, especially on the early period of the Cold War, which had been hitherto unavailable. Thus it became possible to revisit all of the debates about the Cold War and test the propositions advanced in the academic literature with the wealth of new evidence that had emerged. The most prominent effort to this effect was the book by John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know. 1 Despite this title, it is by no means clear that the ...

The Nuclear Challenge, 2019

The strategic paradox the United States - a strategic power in the 21st century? Russian strategi... more The strategic paradox the United States - a strategic power in the 21st century? Russian strategic arms policy after the Cold War strategic nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union outside Russia strategic arms control after the Cold War co-operative threat reduction - safe and secure dismantlement of nuclear weapons co-operative threat reduction - dealing with nuclear proliferation the nuclear challenge.

Choice Reviews Online, 2012

For many in the West, North Korea is a secretive, reclusive, and enigmatic country, a rogue state... more For many in the West, North Korea is a secretive, reclusive, and enigmatic country, a rogue state that threatens the world with its nuclear program and ballistic missiles. Confronted with its numerous provocations involving nuclear tests and missile launches, however, the international community still has not formulated a coherent response. So how do we understand the crisis on the Korean peninsula that has persisted well beyond the end of the Cold War? Christoph Bluth presents an in-depth analytical account of North Korea's development from a Soviet satellite to a failed state in the post-Cold War period. He also explains South Korea's transition from a military dictatorship to a modern democracy with a thriving economy. Based on interviews with key policymakers and experts located in South Korea, Bluth's study throws light on Korean hopes for unification and the future of the U.S.-Republic of Korea alliance. U.S. policy toward North Korea has been politically controversial, with some supporting engagement and negotiations, and others calling for isolating the regime on the basis that it cannot be trusted. Neither approach will work, according to Bluth, who explains that North Korea's foreign and security policy is the result of both the internal and external threats to the survival of a regime that can no longer sustain itself. A suitable text for undergraduates as well as postgraduates, this book will be of interest to anyone with an interest in Korea, international security, and, in particular, nuclear nonproliferation.

Civil-military relations and the making of Soviet security policy Soviet military doctrine strate... more Civil-military relations and the making of Soviet security policy Soviet military doctrine strategic arms policy Soviet strategic defence theatre nuclear weapons conventional arms control conclusion - explaining the end of the Cold War and the collapse of Soviet military power.

Britain, Germany, and Western Nuclear Strategy, 1995

War in History, 2000

Negotiations on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions, 1973-86, continued for a long time without ... more Negotiations on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions, 1973-86, continued for a long time without progress. Research in East German archives confirms that the Warsaw Pact sought to protect its existing advantage in conventional forces in Europe. The conventional view is that the Western side was against any reductions and that the political objectives of the talks (for the Eastern side the conclusion of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), for the Western side the maintenance of domestic support for troop commitments to Europe) were achieved without any progress in the negotiations. This view is challenged by research in German archives which shows that for a time there was strong support in the West German government for far more ambitious goals, seeing the talks as a mechanism to affect fundamentally the structure of European security on the basis of more radical force reductions. This paper analyses these documents in the context of West German Ostpolitik and Alliance politics.

Survival, 1988

Military Objectives in Soviet Foreign Policy. By Michael MccGwire. Washington DC: The Brookings I... more Military Objectives in Soviet Foreign Policy. By Michael MccGwire. Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, 1987. 519 pp. $US 18.95.

Journal of Strategic Studies, 1995

... nuclear weapons at their disposal: 65 warheads on SS-21 and Scud B missiles, and ... His succ... more ... nuclear weapons at their disposal: 65 warheads on SS-21 and Scud B missiles, and ... His successor, Marshal Sergei Akhromeev, held views similar to Ogarkov's (except for a somewhat ... and rational response to Western attempts to achieve military superiority.32 Oleg Bykov of ...

The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 2004