The Soviet Defence Enigma: Estimating Costs and Burden

Realistic appraisal of Soviet defence efforts is crucial to strategic planning and foreign policy analysis. Our knowledge in this area, however, is extraordinarily limited, as Soviet defence expenditure figures are incomplete. Official US estimates invite methodological, conceptual, and perhaps political criticism, and are less than satisfactory. This book reviews the state of current knowledge in this area, and presents a critical review of the nature and limitation of traditional approaches. It then introduces, for the first time in a single volume, the most recent and most original alternative approaches to the study of Soviet defence expenditures and burden.

The contributors analyse newly available sources of economic, scientific, and technical military information and provide a comprehensive prospectus of the prospects and problems involved. They conclude with an in-depth consideration of the relevance and impact of historical and cultural influences on current Russian-Soviet military strategy. What emerges is a fascinating account which extends our knowledge and understanding, and helps to illuminate what is perhaps the single most important 'unknown' in the study of international affairs and defence needs.