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Rationality and politics: the case of strategic theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Trevor C. Salmon
Affiliation:
Lecturer, The National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick

Extract

The development of new kinds of weapons in the immediate post-war period led to a great increase in academic interest in strategic problems. After occasional forays into the field by thinkers such as Bernard Brodie, the output of literature on strategic matters by academics has grown enormously. Most of the work has been done by Americans and reflects an American perspective of the world. It deals with problems that the United States has faced, and is facing, in strategic policy matters.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 1976

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References

page 293 note 1 I am grateful to Mr Phil Williams of Aberdeen University for commenting upon earlier drafts of this article. His own views are contained in: Crisis Management: Confrontation and Diplomacy in the Nuclear Age (London, 1976)Google Scholar.

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page 293 note 4 Gray, Colin, ‘The “Second Wave”: New Directions in Strategic Studies’, R.US.I., cxviii (1973), pp 3637Google Scholar.

page 294 note 1 See, for example, Allison, Graham T., The Essence of Decision (Boston, 1971)Google Scholar.

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page 297 note 2 Sunday Times, 29 Feb . 1976.

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page 299 note 2 Despite President Ford's disavowal of this term, he does believe that the U.S. must “seek to relax tensions so that we can continue a policy of peace through strength”. Interview -Miami Television Station WCKT-T.V., 1 Mar. 1976.

page 300 note 1 The Irish Times, 18 June 1974 and Sunday Times, 28 Mar. 1976.

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page 303 note 2 Ibid., p. 125.

page 303 note 3 Compare Greenwood, D. E., Budgeting for Defence (London, 1972), pp. 2324Google Scholar and Lindblom, C., ‘The Science of Muddling Through’, Public Administration Review, xix (Spring, 1958)Google Scholar.

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page 304 note 1 Hilsman, R., ‘The Foreign Policy Consensus’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, III (1959), pp. 364–71Google Scholar.

page 304 note 2 The Observer, 18 Apr. 1976, pp. 17 and 28.

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page 305 note 1 Maxwell, S., ‘Rationality in Deterrence’, Adelphi Paper 50 (London, 1968), pp. 1Google Scholar ff. Kahn, op. cit. pp. 48. Jervis, R., ‘Bargaining and Bargaining Tactics’, in Pennock, J. R. and Chapman, J. W. (eds.), Coercion (Chicago, 1972)Google Scholar.

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page 307 note 2 Arms and Influence, op, cit, p. 96.

page 308 note 1 Ibid., pp. 92 ff.

page 308 note 2 Ibid., p. 99.

page 308 note 3 Ibid., p. 110.

page 308 note 4 Stanley Hofiman notes that although the nuclear powers play the game of chicken they are careful to keep their foot on the brake pedal. In fact, according to most strategists they do even more than this. Hoffman, S., The State of War: Essays on the Theory and Practice of International Politics (London, 1965), p. 142Google Scholar.

page 308 note 5 Kahn, op, cit. p. 66.

page 308 note 6 The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford, 1964), p. 426Google Scholar.

page 309 note 1 Holsti, R., Crisis, Escalation, War (London, 1972), p. 193Google Scholar. He cites Arms and Influence by Schelling, op. cit. pp. 94-99 as an example of such a faith.

page 309 note 2 Compare Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, op. cit. with The Necessity for Choice (New York, 1960).Google ScholarPubMed

page 309 note 3 Dror, Y., Crazy States: A. Counter-Conventional Strategic Issue (Farnborough, Hants, 1971), p. 4Google Scholar.