Introduction

Part One introduced the concept of an ‘instrumentalist’ understanding of technology: the idea that technologies are neutral, value-free instruments ready to serve the purposes of their users. The argument developed in chapter 2 was that instrumentalism does indeed form a major part of the ‘common sense’ approach to technology in America, but has in the process come to be synonymous with social improvement. In the American context, historically, technology was primarily seen as an instrument of ‘progress’. Though taken as neutral in itself, technology came to be viewed as an invaluable means for furthering social and political ends such as establishing the early US state by effecting improvements in agriculture, industry, transport and weaponry. Despite the fact that this association between technology and progress has come into question at various points, the view of technological improvement as a shortcut to increased political power still persists to some degree. Indeed several authors argue that ballistic missile defence constitutes at least one area where this persistence is particularly evident. One such commentator, for example, argues that the historical attempts at creating an effective missile defence ‘can be best characterized as a program concept engaged in a continual quest for the “magic bullet” ’. Missile defence, on this view, constitutes a classic case of the search for a technological solution to a political problem, that of American nuclear security.