FOUR PAPERS ON PROBLEMS OF STRATEGY
Abstract
The four papers are quite different in their topics. Each one, however, examines a situation that is important for strategic considerations in this decade, and on each of these situations some confusion and divergence in thinking has been evident. Also, each of the four papers treats the facts, and the change or development of the facts, as one aspect of the situation, and the prevailing set or sets of ideas about the situation, and the growth and change of such ideas, as another aspect. Each paper then tries to show that the imperfect lock on as between ideas and facts permits ideas to drift, or to stand still while facts change. The first two papers are related to nuclear warfare, one with specific reference to the industrial effort that must underlie nuclear military power; and the second with the implications of such nuclear military power at the lower end of its spectrum, i.e., in connection with tactical nuclear warfare and the paired concepts of deterrence and escalation. The last two papers are both concerned with the evolution or development of the character of politics as it reflects the development of knowledge of scientific or technological character, on the one hand, and, specifically, of political knowledge on the other.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0686769
Entities
People
- George S. Pettee