Visit to the Center for Military-Strategic Studies at the Russian General Staff

A delegation from the Defence Analysis Division at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) visited the Center for Military-Strategic Studies (CMSS) at the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces on 3-6 September 2001. This was the first meeting between representatives from FOI and CMSS. The first aim was therefore one of mutual acquaintance with the organization and overall research work of the counterpart. A second aim was to discuss five beforehand mutually agreed topics in the form of a seminar. the topics were European security and crisis management, Nato expansion, international operations, the character of future conflicts and information operations(IO). As a result of the seminar it was concluded that necessary requirements for continued dialogue concerning some of the questions discussed during the seminar are present. During the exchange of opinions it was clear that overall there were no diametrically opposed views and that common basic ideas exist. For obvious reasons the differences of opions were largest concerning Nato expansion, while only minor differences characterized the views on for example for character of future conflicts. Of the five topicsdiscussed the character of future conflicts and international operations are probably those best suited for future development. However, since CMSS and FOI emphasised different aspects of these two topics a necessary point of departure for future joint research efforts will have to be a discussion on definitions and common approaches.