The war in Libya had a profound impact on Russia’s understanding of future wars—one that largely escaped the attention of Western analysts.44 Russians saw Libya as indicative of how big powers can “erode the morale of citizens and collapse its support for the national government,” in the words of one senior Russian military official.45 And Libya was only the tip of the iceberg in the United States’ new way of warfare. When the Arab Spring and the “color revolutions” spread like wildfire throughout North Africa and the Middle East, Gerasimov and others saw the hidden hand of the United States
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