Comparative analysis of current nuclear and military doctrines of Russia and the USA

The subject of this study is a comparative analysis of the current nuclear and military doctrines of Russia (2024) and the United States (2018). The purpose of the article is to identify the similarities and differences between the nuclear and military doctrines of the world's leading nuclear powers, as well as to formulate recommendations regarding Russia's nuclear and military doctrines in order to minimize the risk of nuclear war and effectively realize the national and state interests of the Russian Federation. The relevance of the work lies in the fact that after the adoption of the nuclear doctrine in 2024 there has been an escalation of the information war related to attempts to lower the threshold for the applicability of nuclear weapons and discredit the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The practical significance of the research is expressed in the fact that its results can be used to study the problem of international security in conditions of increasing danger of nuclear war, as well as to develop and implement concrete steps to improve Russian doctrinal installations on nuclear and military security. The methodological basis of this study is an analysis of the regulatory framework, scientific literature and Internet resources related to the problem of nuclear and military policy of Russia and the United States, a comparative historical approach for analyzing the doctrinal attitudes of the nuclear policy of the Russian Federation and their adjustments with the corresponding doctrines of the United States. The novelty of the research lies in establishing similarities and differences between the nuclear and military doctrines of the world's leading nuclear powers, as well as in formulating recommendations regarding Russia's nuclear and military doctrines. In particular, it was found out that while the United States had already adopted the first nuclear doctrine in 1994, there was no similar document in Russia until 2020, despite the presence of sections on nuclear deterrence in the military doctrines of the Russian Federation. At the same time, while Russia has almost always been identified as a key adversary in the US nuclear doctrines, even the current Russian nuclear doctrine of 2024 does not mention the United States in the same capacity. There is only an increase in threats emanating from NATO. The authors of the article first of all propose to specify the sources of threats to Russia's nuclear security, which, first of all, are the United States and its closest NATO allies.