Selling Strategic Defense: Interests, Ideologies, and the Arms Race

Erik Pratt examins the origins of US missile defence programmes since 1945 and analyzes the personal stakes and political fortunes of the individuals and groups who have tried to sell the US government and public on the idea of strategic defence. Considering the roles of both presidential power and bureaucratic and interest group politics, Pratt aims to shed new light on the area of national security decision making. He presents a study not only of the decision making process underlying new weapons systems, but also of competing strategic premises and how these have shaped the nuclear arms race.