Reconstructing society-military relations in post-Soviet Russia

The thesis examines society-military relations with a focus on the contemporary Russian case. In doing this, it develops the Society-Military Interface (SMI), created by Stephen Webber and Jennifer Mathers (2006), and produces a typology of society-military relations. The SMI allows the inclusion of public and daily interactions which adds an additional layer of insight into the analysis of society-military relations. Although contemporary Russia is frequently characterised as a sub-optimal version of a democratic ideal or represents a return to the Soviet past, the thesis argues that post-Soviet Russia is militarised and that the sub-elite level of analysis can provide a meaningful insight into a Russian society-military relations. The original empirical material of the thesis is organised into four chapters examining twelve individual indicators of militarisation such as: military spending, civilian control, and everyday militarisation. The thesis seeks to offer an original contribution to the literature on civil-military relations and Russian politics, in three ways. Firstly, it explores society-military relations in terms of militarisation. Secondly, it analyses interactions beyond the experience of the West, such as mechanisms of civilian control rooted in executive power rather than legislative oversight. Thirdly, it removes the dichotomy of external armed forces and internal security services which has thus far dominated the literature. This allows the ‘military organisation’, comprised of the full range of ‘power ministries’, to be included in the analysis. As the thesis seeks to demonstrate, analysis of these institutions is crucial to understanding contemporary Russian society-military relations. These three elements challenge the approaches of the existing literature which predominantly focus on: elite level interactions (military and political); institutions controlled by the MOD (Armed Forces); and society-military relations defined in liberal-democratic terms