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Abstract

The prescriptive implications of the sort of abstract theorizing discussed in the last chapter were perplexing to many. In one sense they were quite radical in that they suggested a totally new approach to strategy and dealings with a potential enemy. In another sense they were extremely conservative because they took the status quo as a given, and devoted their energies to its preservation. Little hope was offered that the East-West conflict might be resolved either by political or military means. Their analyses yielded neither new ideas on how to achieve a political accommodation with the Soviet Union nor military concepts that opened up the prospect of victory.

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Notes

  1. C. W. Sherwin, ‘Securing peace through military technology’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (May 1956).

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  2. A short piece by Amster entitled ‘Design for deterrence’, was appended. The original Amster study appeared as A Theory for the Design of a Deterrent Air Weapon System (San Diego, Calif.: Convair Corporation, 1955).

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  3. For evidence of the influence of Amster/Sherwin see Schelling, Strategy of Conflict, p. 7 and Arthur Lee Burns, ‘Disarmament or the balance of terror’, World Politics, XII: 1 (October 1959), p. 134.

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  4. Thomas Schelling and Morton Halperin, Strategy and Arms Control (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1961), pp. 1–2.

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  5. Bernard Bechhoefer, Postwar Negotiations for Arms Control (Washington DC: Brookings Institution 1961).

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  6. Alva Myrdal, The Game of Disarmament: How the United States and Russia Run the Arms Race (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977), p. XIV.

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  7. Robert Osgood, ‘Stabilizing the military environment’, American Political Science Review, LV:1 (March 1961).

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  8. Malcolm Hoag, ‘On Stability in Deterrent Races’, World Politics, XIII: 4 (July 1961), p. 522.

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  9. The term is taken from Thomas Murray, Nuclear Policy for War and Peace, (Ohio: World Publishing Co., 1960), p. 28. Murray, a catholic member of the Atomic Energy Commission, attempted more than most others connected with the nuclear programme to inject a moral element into the debate. A discussion of a variety of ethical problems is found in Green, Deadly Logic chap. 6. Green also provides a useful bibliography.

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  10. Green’s ideas are discussed, unsympathetically, in Morton A. Kaplan (ed.), Strategic Thinking and Its Moral Implications (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973).

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  11. See also Sydney Bailey, Prohibitions and Restraints in Warfare (London, Oxford University Press, 1972).

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  12. Lieutenant-General Sir John Cowley, ‘Future trends in warfare’, Journal of the Royal United Services Institute (February 1960), p. 13.

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  13. Kenneth E. Boulding, Conflict and Defense: A General Theory (New York: Harper & Row, 1963).

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  14. Aaron Wildaysky, ‘Practical consequences of the theoretical study of defence policy’, Public Administration Review, XXV (March 1965). Reprinted in The Revolt Against the Masses (New York, Basic Books, 1971).

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  15. Robert Jervis, ‘Hypotheses on misperception’, World Politics xx (April 1968), p. 455.

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  16. On the British campaign see Christopher Driver, The Disarmers (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1964).

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  17. Philip Noel-Baker, The Arms Race (London: John Calder, 1958).

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  18. Leo Szilard, ‘Disarmament and the Problem of Peace’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, XI: 8 (October 1955), p. 298.

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  19. Leo Szilard, ‘How to Live with the Bomb and Survive’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, XVI: 2 (February 1960), p. 59.

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© 1983 The International Institute for Strategic Studies

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Freedman, L. (1983). Arms Control. In: The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04271-5_13

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