Not 22 June 1941: time for change? Debatable views on current thinking on the nature of ‘invasion’

Written before the events of 11 September 2001, the author argues for the adoption of a much broader, more contemporary definition of the concept of invasion, using the experience of previous military campaigns in the 1991 Gulf War and, more recently, the wars in the Balkans but not, curiously enough, Russia's own military experience of the 1990s. If such views are put into practice, then this could have important repercussions for the future of the Russian Armed Forces ‐ in terms of force structure, weapons procurement ‐ as well as in relation to Russia's relationship with the CIS countries and NATO.