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An illuminating insight into the work of Thomas Schelling, one of the most influential strategic thinkers of the nuclear age.
By the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the United States' early forays into Vietnam, he had become one of the most distinctive voices in Western strategy. This book shows how Schelling's thinking is much more than a reaction to the tensions of the Cold War. In a demonstration that ideas can be just as significant as superpower politics, Robert Ayson traces the way this Harvard University professor built a unique intellectual framework using a mix of social-scientific reasoning, from economics to social theory and psychology. As such, this volume offers a rare glimpse into the intellectual history which underpins classical thinking on nuclear strategy and arms control - thinking which still has an enormous influence in the early twenty-first century.
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THOMAS SCHELLING AND THE NUCLEAR AGE Cass Series: Strategy and History Series Editors: Colin Gray and Williamson Murray ISSN: 1473-6403 This new series will focus on the theory and practice of strategy. Following Clausewitz, strategy has been understood to mean the use made of force, and the threat of the use of force, for the ends of policy. This series is as interested in ideas as in historical cases of grand strategy and military strategy in action. All historical periods, near and past, and even future, are of interest. In addition to original monographs, the series will from time to time publish edited reprints of neglected classics as well as collections of essays. 1. Military Logistics and Strategic Performance, Thomas M. Kane 2. Strategy for Chaos: Revolutions in Military Affairs and the Evidence of History, Colin Gray 3. The Myth of Inevitable US Defeat in Vietnam, C. Dale Walton 4. Astropolitik: Classical Geopolitics in the Space Age, Everett C. Dolman 5. Anglo-American Strategic Relations and the Far East, 1933–1939: Imperial Crossroads, Greg Kennedy 6. Power and Policy in the Space and Information Age: Pure Strategy, Everett C. Dolman 7. The Red Army, 1918–1941: From Vanguard of World Revolution to US Ally, Earl F. Ziemke 8. Britain and Ballistic Missile Defence, 1942–2002, Jeremy Stocker 9. The Nature of War in the Information Age: Clausewitzian Future, David J. Lonsdale 10. Thomas Schelling and the Nuclear Age: Strategy as Social Science, Robert Ayson THOMAS SCHELLING AND THE NUCLEAR AGE Strategy as Social Science ROBERT AYSON Australian National University, Canberra, Australia FRANK CASS LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2004 by Frank Cass 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Frank Cass 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Frank Cass is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2004 Robert Ayson All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-50213-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-58235-7 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–714–65516–3 (Print Edition) ISSN 1473-6403 1 Contents Series Editor’s Preface vii Acknowledgements xi Introduction