About the Author

ANDREI MARTYANOV is an expert on Russian military and naval issues. He was born in Baku, USSR, graduated from the Kirov Naval Red Banner Academy and served as an officer on the ships and staff position of Soviet Coast Guard through 1990. He took part in the events in the Caucasus which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. In mid-1990s he moved to the United States where he worked as Laboratory Director in a commercial aerospace group. He is a frequent blogger on the US Naval Institute Blog. He is author of Losing Military Supremacy and The Real Revolution in Military Affairs

Reviews

"...The sections of the book on American military prowess are where Martyanov's expertise really shines through. Martyanov claims that a revolution in military affairs has already destroyed the foundation of American post-World War II hegemony and that America simply has not yet awakened to this reality. This is due to the fact, Martyanov says, that the United States has "lost both its competitive edge and its competences in some crucial fields such as building complex machines, commercial aerospace, and shipbuilding." Effectively, he argues, the United States has already lost the arms race. Martyanov compares the efficacy of America's Tomahawk missile with Russia's Kalibr. He argues that both weapons have seen ample usage in recent years, and Russia's missile is far more effective against missile defense. He points out that 70 percent of Tomahawks launched at Syria in April 2018 were shot down.
But this is not Martyanov's core critique, which is that the American military is simply not tailored to the needs of today's world. It is structured for incursions against much weaker opponents--such as Iraq in 1991 and 2003. But it is not in a position of strength when faced with a peer that can compete in terms of troop deployment and firepower...

...The book really comes into its own in the long sections on the American economy. These chapters seem especially prescient after Western sanc-tions against Russia failed to stop the invasion or decisively cripple the Russian economy, while causing increasing strains in the West. In a word, Martyanov views American prosperity as largely fake, a shiny wrapping distracting from an increasingly hollow interior..." --PHILLIP PILKINGTON, American Affairs Journal

"A multi-level analysis of the crisis which is now so clearly plaguing the USA of 2021. I consider Disintegration a "must read" for every US patriot who wants his country to overcome its current difficulties." --VINEYARD SAKER

"Andrei Martyanov is in a class by himself... His new book, Disintegration, completes a trilogy. And it's a stunning departure. Here, Martyanov, in meticulous detail, analyzes the imperial decline thematically - with chapters on Consumption, Geoeconomics, Energy, Losing the Arms Race, among others, composing a devastating indictment especially of toxic D.C. lobbies and the prevailing political mediocrity across the Beltway. What is laid bare for the reader is the complex interplay of forces that are driving the political, ideological, economic, cultural and military American chaos..." --PEPE ESCOBAR, Asia Times

"Martyanov shows that America's disintegration is irreversible because the ruling elites are an organic part of the calamitous sources of dysfunction that have destroyed the country."
--PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS