Carter's Conversion: The Hardening of American Defense PolicyWhen presidential candidate Jimmy Carter advocated defense budget cuts, he did so not only to save money but also with the hope of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons. Three yearslater, when President Carter announced his support of full-scale development of the MX missile and modernization of NATO's Long-Range Theater Nuclear Force, it marked a dramatic policy shift for his administration. In light of Carter's cost-cutting in the first year of his administration, previous observers have attributed Carter's subsequent shift either to the "shocks of 1979" the Soviet Union's move into Afghanistan and the seizure of power by Islamic revolutionaries in Iran-or to domestic political pressure, such as interest group activity, executive-legislative bargaining, or interbureaucratic conflict. Brian Auten now argues that these explanations only partially explain this midterm policy change. In Carter's Conversion, Auten reveals how strategic ideas and studies, allied relations, and arms control negotiations each worked to deflect Carter's initial defense stance away from the policy path suggested by the prevailing international military environment. He also shows how the administration's MX and Long Range Theater Nuclear Force decisions subsequently hardened following significant adjustments to these three variables. Employing the approach to international relations known as neoclassical realism, Auten demonstrates that Carter reassessed his strategic thinking and revised his policy stance accordingly. Integrating declassified documents, interviews, and private archives with a mountain of secondary sources, he provides a historical analysis of defense policy transformation over the first three years of the Carter administration and a detailed examination of how Carter and his national security team addressed challenges posed by the expansion of Soviet military power. Full of rich history and cogent analysis, Carter's Conversion presents a wealth of detailed arguments about how Carter adjusted his policy outlook, couched in a thorough understanding of weapons, arms control dynamics, and defense policy-making. As a revision ofcommon interpretations, it provides both an example of self-correcting policy change and a realist argument about the end of superpower détente and the start of the "Second Cold War." |
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Carter's Conversion: The Hardening of American Defense Policy Brian J. Auten No preview available - 2008 |
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accessed February adjustment administration administration’s Air Force air-mobile ALCMs allies American Appropriations for Fiscal argued arms control assessment assured vulnerability attack Authorization for Appropriations basing bomber Brzezinski to President capabilities conventional CPD Papers cruise missiles Daalder decision Defense Authorization defense budget defense policy defense-left defense-right deployed deployment deterrence domestic political Europe explained Folder Force Posture Ford Foreign Policy GLCMs Group Harold Brown Herbert York Ibid ICBM improved innenpolitik insisted January June launchers limits LRTNF MAP-vertical memo Memorandum from Brzezinski ment military-operational Minuteman Minuteman III MIRV mobile Moscow NATO negotiations neoclassical realism Nitze November nuclear weapons options OSTP Pentagon Pershing Pershing II planning President Carter Presidential Campaign SALT SALT II silos SLBM Soviet Union strategic forces strategic nuclear submarines targets theater nuclear forces theory tion Trident U.S. Strategic United Victor Utgoff warhead Warsaw Pact White House Yaffe