The Missing Dimension of U.S. Defense Policy: Force, Perceptions and Power (Revised)

Abstract

This author argues that it is not possible to extract the maximum politico-military benefit from the nation's expenditure on its military forces unless explicit consideration is given to the perceptual effects of their configuration, structure and modes of deployment. It is further argued that it is well within the scope of the relevant disciplines and methods to evaluate such perceptual effects in a manner sufficiently unambiguous to allow the resulting data to be introduced in the decision-making processes of the Department of Defense. (This last proposition may be tested through case studies of perceptual-impact analyses of major decision alternatives.) It remains to devise procedures whereby the perceptual dimension of defense policy can be integrated within the established processes of decision.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1976
Accession Number
ADA025161

Entities

People

  • Edward N. Luttwak

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircraft Carriers
  • Aircrafts
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Force Structure
  • Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
  • International Relations
  • Inventory
  • Military Capabilities
  • Money
  • Navy
  • Political Science
  • Prisoners Of War
  • Psychology
  • Ships
  • Strategic Weapons
  • United States
  • Ussr

Readers

  • Economics
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.