Hegemony and Culture in the Origins of NATO Nuclear First-Use, 1945-1955 / by A. Johnston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnston, Andrew M., 1963-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

International relations.

Politics and war.

International Relations.

Military and Defence Studies.

Local Subjects:

International Relations.

Military and Defence Studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (X, 329 p.)

Edition:

1st ed. 2005.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan US : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Johnston argues that the preemptive first-use of nuclear weapons, long the foundation of American nuclear strategy, was not the carefully reasoned response to a growing Soviet conventional threat. Instead, it was part of a process of cultural 'socialization', by which the United States reconstituted the previously nationalist strategic cultures of the European allies into a seamless western community directed by Washington. Building a bridge between theory and practice, this book examines the usefulness of cultural theory in international history.

Contents:

Introduction : the persistence of nuclear first-use

Ch. 1. Culture, war, empire

Ch. 2. The persistence of the old regime : British, French, and American strategic thinking before 1949

Ch. 3. "Disembodied military planning" : the political-economy of strategy, 1949-50

Ch. 4. Mind the gap : the paper divisions and cardboard wings of the Lisbon force goals

Ch. 5. Strategies of perpheralism : France, Britain, and the American new look

Ch. 6. Two cultures of massive retaliation : neo-isolationism and the idealism of John Foster Dulles

Ch. 7. Hegemony versus multilateralism : nuclear sharing and NATO's search for cohesion

Ch. 8. "Our plans might not be purely defensive" : leading NATO into the nuclear era

Conclusion : what does culture tell us about NATO nuclear strategy that we were afraid to ask?

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786611367770

9781281367778

128136777X

9781403976932

1403976937

OCLC:

123539985