Making Threats

This analysis contributes to a political sociology of the arms race by linking the history of U.S. strategic policy with sociological explorations in the organization of power. American nuclear policy illustrates continuity and episodic change. Continuity is expressed in near-universal support among policy-makers of a policy of “extended” rather than “minimal” deterrence. Extended deterrence implies a threat to use nuclear weapons first. The change in nuclear policy is the variation in the determination to modernize the nuclear force structure. That is, the actual commitment to prepare to fight and win a nuclear war oscillates from one period to another. Sustained efforts to improve the nuclear force structure have been concentrated in four periods: the Truman administration between 1947 and 1950, the first two years of the Kennedy administration, the last two years of the Nixon administration, and the last year of the Carter administration to the present. The determination to modernize the nuclear force structure is situated within intra-elite debates between advocates of containment and proponents of rollback, and the installation of new foreign policy projects necessary to adjust the position of the U.S. in the world arena

Administration (probate law) · Deterrence theory · Economics · Elite · Foreign policy · Law and economics · Nuclear energy policy · Nuclear ethics · Nuclear power · Nuclear weapon · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Position (finance) · Sociology · European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies · Finance · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Nuclear Issues and Defense

• Current Periodical Literature

  Open Access•Joseph Haberer•Bulletin of Science Technology &…•1989

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• Education for Survival

  James T Hannon, Sam Marullo•Teaching Sociology•1988

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• Teorie sociologiche alla prova

  Open Access•Paolo Giovannini•Teorie sociologiche alla prova•2009

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• Moral Panics, The Military-Industrial Complex, and The Arms Race

  Open Access•Sheldon Ungar•Sociological Quarterly•1990

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• Nuclear Winter

  Open Access•R P Turco, O B Toon et al.•Science•1983

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• The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy

  Open Access•Lawrence Freedman•Evolution of Nuclear Strategy•1983

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• The State and Political Theory

  Martin Carnoy•State and Political Theory•1984

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• Politics and Policies of the Truman Administration

  William C Berman, Barton J Bernstein•The Journal of Southern History•1971

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• American Atomic Strategy and the Hydrogen Bomb Decision

  David Rosenberg, David Alan Rosenberg•Journal of American History•1979

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• Victory Is Possible

  Colin S Gray, Keith B Payne et al.•Foreign Policy•1980

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• The Nuclear Weapons Industry

  Andrew J Pierre, Kenneth A Bertsch et al.•Foreign Affairs•1984

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• Doubletalk

  Andrew J Pierre, Gerard Smith•Foreign Affairs•1980

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• Containment

  Gaddis Smith, Thomas H Etzold et al.•Foreign Affairs•1978

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• The Iron Triangle

  Andrew J Pierre, Gordon Adams•Foreign Affairs•1982

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• Call to Mutiny

  Daniel Ellsberg•Monthly Review•1981

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• The Rise and Fall of the ‘Soviet Threat

  Open Access•Martha Cox, Michael Cox•Political Studies•1985

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• Atoms, Strategy and Policy

  Paul H Nitze•Foreign Affairs•1956

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• Mad versus Nuts

  Spurgeon M Keeny, S M Jr Keeny et al.•Foreign Affairs•1981

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• The Ideological Nature of Nuclear Deterrence

  Open Access•Sam Marullo•Sociological Quarterly•1985

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