Massing the Tropes: The Metaphorical Construction of American Nuclear Strategy

by Ron Hirschbein

Overview

At the dawn of the nuclear age, strategist Bernard Brodie recognized our predicament when he said, "Nuclear weapons exist and they are incredibly destructive." Despite the end of the Cold War, thousands of nuclear weapons remain on hair-trigger alert on both sides of the Atlantic. Plans to develop, deploy, and detonate nuclear weapons (for purposes of war prevention or war fighting) are informed by the ambiguous notion that nuclear war can be avoided by maintaining a balance of power. Policy-makers and decision-makers believe that once the balance of power is destroyed, a crisis will ensue, and if this crisis cannot be resolved with words, it is somehow necessary to use weapons. This idea is held as an historic inevitability, but the nuclear subculture is unaware of the highly problematic nature of their fundamental assumptions. Hirschbein entertains the possibility that the theory and practice of these policy-makers and decision-makers are informed by concepts at once ancient and metaphorical. He analyzes the primary and secondary metaphors invoked to conceptualize and manage nuclear weaponry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313069017
Publisher:	ABC-CLIO, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/30/2005
Series:	Praeger Security International Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	309 KB

About the Author

Ron Hirschbein is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Peace Institute at California State University, Chico. Hirschbein has served as a visiting professor at University of California campuses in peace and conflict studies at Berkeley and San Diego, and at the United Nations University in Austria. He also served as President, Concerned Philosophers for Peace. He is the author of numerous articles and books offering a humanistic approach to a variety of foreign and domestic controversies.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Faith-Based Nuclear Strategy
Realists are from Mars/Idealists are from Venus
What's the Story?
Newest Weapons/Oldest Metaphors
Like Nothing Else
The Balance of Power
Deterrence: Peace on Earth Without Good Will Toward Men
What if They Gave a Crisis and Nobody Came?
Necessity: The Mother of Disaster
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index