LootPlacesᵍᵐ 🦇🔊 (3, 3) 🆘

Yesterday, I attended the presentation of the book The War for Karabakh: Strategy, Technology, and Victory, authored by American military experts Liam Collins and John Spencer, at the Baku Book Center. The presentation was followed by an engaging discussion on the lessons of the 2020 war and the 2023 anti-terror operation. The book offers a comprehensive, objective analysis of the war, examining it at the strategic, operational and tactical levels. It is particularly valuable for presenting the victory not merely as a military achievement, but as the result of a sustained national effort. I would highlight several important points from the book and our discussion. First, Azerbaijan's victory was a national achievement, built on unity of purpose and decades of preparation. The Azerbaijani people were united around the objective of restoring the country's territorial integrity. Success required far more than military strength. It was preceded by years of state-building, economic and social development, diplomatic groundwork and systematic modernization of the armed forces. Second, 2020 was the moment when opportunity met preparation. Azerbaijan was able to translate decades of strategic planning and investment into a decisive military outcome. Third, the war was won primarily through effective command and control, operational planning, and the exceptional motivation, training and combat readiness of Azerbaijani soldiers. Modern technologies, including drones and precision weapons, were important enablers, but they do not explain the victory on their own. The Battle of Shusha in early November 2020, which proved decisive for the outcome of the war, illustrates this particularly well. Highly motivated and well-trained Azerbaijani soldiers, operating in exceptionally difficult terrain without drone support, defeated enemy in close-range combat. It was a remarkable demonstration of the human factor in modern warfare. Azerbaijan conducted the war in full compliance with international humanitarian law, as evidenced by the exceptionally low civilian-to-military casualty ratio of 1.5%, even when using figures reported by the Armenian side - a remarkably low ratio by the standards of modern warfare both in comparative and absolute terms, particularly given the scale and intensity of the fighting. Finally, and most importantly, President Ilham Aliyev’s personal leadership was central to this achievement. His strategic vision and leadership in the years preceding the war, his political and military decision-making as Supreme Commander-in-Chief during the war, and his determination to consolidate its results afterward were key to achieving Azerbaijan’s national objectives. Azerbaijan's victory deserves to be studied as a case of how national unity, long-term strategic preparation, effective state leadership and military excellence can combine to produce a decisive outcome. I thank Liam Collins and John Spencer for their serious research and for contributing to a deeper understanding of this important chapter in our history.