Red army swords and free market ploughshares

Abstract

This article reviews the record of military reform, demobilization, and conversion in the Chinese and Soviet militaries. As the Chinese experience has been relatively successful and the two states have similar military systems, lessons are drawn from the Chinese experience and applied to the current debate on the progress of military reform in the Soviet Union. The Chinese military reform model is offered as an alternative that could satisfy the demands of Soviet liberals, predisposed to an American model, as well as Soviet centralists, predisposed to a praetorian model.