Military Power And The Advance Of Technology: General Purpose Military Forces For The 1980s And Beyond

by Seymour J. Deitchman

Overview

This new, fully revised edition of Dr. Deitchman's New Technology and Military Power (Westview, 1979) reflects the changes of the past five years, some of them major, in the world'situation, in U.S. perceptions of national security needs, in U.S. assessments of the balance between strategic and general purpose weapons systems, and in the evolution of high technology weapons. Addressing our urgent need for multipurpose rapid deployment forces that can be sustained for fairly long periods, the book answers many important questions that have been discussed in Congress, at the Pentagon, in the White House, and, of course, in public debate: How has modern technology influenced the basic components of national security? Why must we now spend so much of our national budget to build credible general purpose forces? Is high technology running away with our military establishments and is it compatible with a large carrier force and a fleet of nuclear submarines? Why must we create an enormous arsenal of sophisticated nonnuclear weapons designed to assure victory in a battle where nuclear weapons will not be used by any of the combatants? Why do we need the potential of a preemptive presence in faraway theaters? Dr. Deitchman also deals with the basic facts of the military-industrial complex, examining its institutional dynamics and constitutional barriers to change, its technological drive, and its societal inertia. He shows how simplistic journalistic prescriptions and trivial observations fail to do justice to the enormous complexity of an industrial economy with strong survival instincts and scientific energies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367019808
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/07/2019
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	5.88(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Also of Interest — Preface to the First Edition — Preface to the Second Edition — The Gradual “Revolution” in Military Technology — New Technologies — Tactical Nuclear Weapons — Tactical Air and Air Defenses — Tanks and Anti-Tank Guided Missiles — Ships and the Evolution of War at Sea — Using the General Purpose Forces — Military Power in the Twentieth Century's Last Decades — The Soviet Union as "Threat" — The Defense of Western Europe — Rapid Deployment and the Uses of the Navy — Absorbing Technological Change — Frustrated Expectations — What Systems to Buy