Logotyp: till Försvarshögskolans hemsida

An annexation of landmasses or parts of another country is nowadays a rare case. However, Russia managed to annex parts of Ukraine after a violent and complicated conflict in 2014. There are several different theories and methods of describing Russian warfare and some of them even originate from Russia itself.

This paper aims to apply the Reflexive Control theory, which originated in Russia, and see how well it accounts Russian actions in Ukraine. The analyzation of this theory is necessary because after the annexation of Crimea there has been an increasing interest to describe Russian actions in the science of war discussions.

This is done by first describing different theorists’ approaches and views on the theory and then constructing a template from which this thesis’ analysis is concluded. There are four major contributors to the theory, all of which differ slightly in their description of the theory.

This paper concludes that patterns of Reflexive Control may have been implemented during the conflict in Ukraine. These patterns may also have been present before the conflict, after the annexation and up to present day.