The Arms Race in the Soviet Military Strategy: A Documentary Study of the Concepts and Key Trends in the Soviet Defense Policy 1962 – 1972

Khaled Ramadan Al-Rubaie, Ammar

	The Arms Race in the Soviet Military Strategy: A Documentary Study of the Concepts and Key Trends in the Soviet Defense Policy 1962 – 1972
مجلة آداب البصرة
Article 9, Volume 11, Issue 72, 2015, Pages 169-234 PDF (0 K)
Author
Ammar Khaled Ramadan al-Rubaie
Abstract
After WWII, two great powers emerged as the two world axes: the United States and the Soviet Union. Each has attempted to score some victories over the other using all the available means that suited the status qua, means which would deter an opponent and make him back down on political positions or strategy to their own advantage. The arms race was the most serious strategy. The unprecedented development in weapons of mass destruction industry has directly influenced the working strategy, especially with the development of nuclear weapons in such a way that threatened the existence of the whole world, let alone the two rivaling powers. Thus, war was replaced by the ‘Cold War’ which pushed these powers to develop and consolidate their defensive systems as well as their capabilities of making nuclear and missile systems in order to exhaust and even destroy their enemy or to marginalize their respective abilities. As the normal war became virtually impossible with the development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles, the two powers resorted to a fiercely competitive arms race. This paper addresses this arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, uncovering the characteristic features of this period which shaped the abilities of both powers as well as their political status by the end of the Cold War.
Keywords
The Arms Race in the Soviet Military Strategy

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