Ciprian Clipa
The Russian Understanding of War: Blurring the Lines Between War and Peace. By Oscar Jonsson. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2019. ISBN 978-1626167339. Maps. Photographs. Glossary. Notes. Sources Cited. Index. Pp. vii, 208. $26.14.
Oscar Jonsson’s The Russian Understanding of War is a well-timed and thought-provoking explanation of how Russian military thinking has developed to integrate non-military state tools—such as information warfare and ideological subversion—into its understanding of war. By systematically exploring this evolution from the Soviet period to today, Jonsson presents a convincing case: Russia no longer sees war solely in terms of armed conflict but views nonviolent actions as part of a continuous spectrum of conflict. This book is a must-read for policymakers, academics, and armed forces members struggling with today’s geopolitical conflicts and the challenges of so-called hybrid warfare.
Oscar Jonsson, a Swedish security analyst and political scientist, presents in this book the core question of whether Russia’s understanding of the nature of war has evolved to incorporate nonmilitary tools into its conception of warfare. Jonsson’s methodology examines Russian military writing, security policy documents, and public declarations of high-level officials, such as General Valery Gerasimov. The book is chronological in format, starting with the Soviet inheritance and concludes with extensive discussions of information warfare and the Color Revolutions. Throughout, Jonsson’s core argument is that Russia’s concept of war has extended beyond traditional armed conflict to include nonmilitary tools, such as propaganda, cyber operations, and political subversion, as essential components of warfare.
The book’s fresh approach is among its strongest points. Instead of merely analyzing Russia’s military capabilities or official doctrine, Jonsson aims to understand how the Russian thinkers themselves frame the nature of war. This closes an important gap in the literature and introduces a new analytical lens to the subject. The depth of Jonsson’s research is matched by its specificity; he relies extensively on Russian primary materials, everything from military journals and doctrinal texts to speeches, many of which remain untranslated or underutilized in Western scholarship.
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