Transovrabia’s Path to Military Reform: Aspects of Defense Transformation

Abstract

The Soviet Union collapsed on December 25, 1991, and fifteen former Soviet Republics gained their independence. The megalithicSoviet military disintegrated from being a unified organization into a series of national militaries belonging to former USSR membercountries. However, many of these countries lacked the proper framework, systems, and processes necessary to effectively operatenewly independent, national armies.Transovrabia is a surrogate name for a former Soviet country with her own culture, history, institutions, and ambitions. With thedissolution of the Soviet Union, she suddenly found herself the master of her own destiny.The West committed to aiding in her transformation. My objective was to identify a better approach to transforming Transovrabia. Inorder to do this, I identified challenges faced by Transovrabia. I also reviewed the transformation methodology used by the U.S. Armyin the 1970s and analyzed what might cross-walk to Transovrabia’s efforts in transformation today. Finally, I identified the weak ormissing North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), framework parametersand the impact of not having these parameters correctly applied to Transovrabia’s transformation.After nearly two decades in Transovrabia, U.S., NATO and Transovrabian leadership correctly ask why military transformation istaking so long. This paper addresses the “why”.By implementing the framework additions identified in this paper, both NATO and DSCA will provide a stronger foundation forTransovrabian countries in transformation. Based on experience, this framework will result in compressing transformation time by atleast one decade.Keywords: Security Cooperation, Military Transformation, NATO Clearing House, Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA),Curriculum Development (ADDIE), Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), National Training Center (NTC), Former SovietUnion, Soviet Army, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)