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Based on a case study of the RAND Corporation, this shows how the uncertainties of US defense policies since the fall of the USSR can be understood and illustrated through an analysis of the evolution of the think tank community, and more particularly through a sociological study of the so-called defense intellectuals such as the RAND Corporation.
List of contents
PART I: THE INVARIANTS OF THE MILITARY INTELLECTUAL FIELD The Inheritance of a Technicist Ideology The Competitive Dynamics of the Strategic Field PART II: REWRITING THE AMERICAN MILITARY DOCTRINE Transformations in the Defense Department The Work of Legitimizing Political Agendas PART III: THE EMISSARIES OF AMERICAN MILITARY THOUGHT An Exemplary Regionalization of American Politics The International Distribution of American Sciences of Government Conclusion: The Disenchantment of Strategists?
About the author
JEAN-LOUP SAMAAN is a Professor of Strategic Studies at the NATO Defense College, Italy. A former strategic analyst at the French Ministry of Defense, he holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Paris La Sorbonne. He has been a visiting scholar at the RAND Corporation and Duke University and is a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Summary
Based on a case study of the RAND Corporation, this shows how the uncertainties of US defense policies since the fall of the USSR can be understood and illustrated through an analysis of the evolution of the think tank community, and more particularly through a sociological study of the so-called defense intellectuals such as the RAND Corporation.
Additional text
"In an era of think tank booming around the world, it makes considerable sense to revisit and reassess the role of one of the 'grand-daddy' think tanks of the Western world. The role of the think tank has changed, and RAND is no exception. This study by Samaan reveals how the intent of critical and independent policy analysis associated with the stereotype of think tanks, is whittled and weaned into insipidity by the dynamics of federal funding, loosening ties to academe and the Washington DC 'revolving door' whereby the think tank becomes embedded as an institution of governmentality." - Diane Stone, professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick and Central European University
'Jean-Loup Samaan has written a thoughtful and probing analysis of the Rand Corporation and its influence in shaping US Strategic Studies in the post-Cold War era. His book is a must-read for those interested in how think tanks compete in the battle of ideas." - Donald Abelson, professor of Political Science, University of Western Ontario and author of A Capitol Idea: Think Tanks & US Foreign Policy
"It is rarely given to individuals - or to think tanks - to see themselves as others see them. Jean-Loup Samaan's intellectual history of RAND in the years since the end of the Cold War is an important contribution to the discussion about not only that institution, but the American version of Strategic Studies altogether." - Eliot Cohen, professor of Strategic Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
