Standing on Shoulders
Richard Pearle’s most recent oped cites Albert Wohlstetter’s 1976 essay “Racing Forward? Or Ambling Back?” (PDF generously posted by Robert at AlbertWohlstetter.com).
One still encounters the claim that arms races become self-sustaining through an action-reaction cycle as nations accumulate more and more weaponry in the attempt to maintain a relative edge over their rivals. Wohlstetter demonstrated that there actual dynamics are far more complex, but this point never seemed to permiate the larger discourse (meaning that classics like this can be a valuable secret weapon in cutting through presentist debates).
Incidentally, the need to understand some of the other factors that governed Soviet strategic investments drove Andy Marshall’s research program into bureaucractic/organizational behavior.
