Stephen M. Walt
Published: 1987
Total Pages: 63
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This paper is an attempt to evaluate the debate between two Western analysts of the Soviet Navy. The material in question is Soviet military literature, and the focus is on Admiral Sergei G. Gorshkov. Our two scholarly protagonists are James M. McConnell and Michael K. MccGwire. There are two major questions. First, was Gorshkov speaking authoritatively in his celebrated series Navies in War and Peace? Second, what was he saying? Was he elaborating a novel strategy of withholding SSBN? Alternatively, was the Gorshkov series a polemic for an expansion of the Soviet Navy along more traditional lines, with defense against Western naval strike forces as a principal mission? In this essay, I focus primarily on the second of these questions.