Lost Illusions
| Date | 01 September 1978 |
| Published date | 01 September 1978 |
| Author | Peter Nailor |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207803300307 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
PETER
NAILOR
Lost
illusions
It
is
incontestable
that
the
level
at
which states
have
armed them-
selves
in
recent
times
is
extremely
high;
and
since
there
are
nearly
four
times
as
many
states
as
there
used to
be
only
a
short
while
ago,
the
aggregate
expenditure
is
horrifyingly
big.
In
some
areas
of
the
world
the
proportion
of
the
national
wealth
that
is
spent
on
mili-
tary
paraphernalia
is
so
intrusive
that
one
can
only
surmise
that
the
feeling
of
insecurity
overwhelms
other
needs
and
priorities.
In
that
sense,
these
states
are
already
at
war.
Other
states,
in
other
areas,
have
a
less
clearly defined concern
and
therefore
juggle,
usu-
ally
with
some
self-attributed
concept of
rationality,
defence
ex-
penditures
and
all
the
other
things
they
want
to
do
for,
and
to,
their
people.
Why
all
this
happens
comprises
one
set
of
problems;
for
political
scientists how
it
happens
is
at
least
as
intriguing.
Arms
Uncontrolled
does
not quite
explain
why
and
is
only
part-
ly
concerned
with
how.
It
could
more
appropriately
be
called
an
inventory with explanations:
who
has
got
what,
who
might
get
what,
how
it
all
might
be
employed,
and
what
has
been
done,
in
certain
salient
areas, to
try
and
stop
them
doing
it.
Quite
frankly,
if
it
were
not
for
the
elegance
of
some of
the explanations
-
most
Professor
of
History
and
International
Affairs
at the
Royal
Naval
College,
Greenwich;
author
of
a
number
of
articles
on
strategic
studies
and
defence
policy,
especially in
the
field
of
European
security.
Arms
Uncontrolled
prepared
by
Frank
Barnaby and Ronald
Huisken
(Cambridge,
Mass:
Harvard
University
Press,
1975,
xvi,
232pp,
$12.50)
Developing
the
ICBM:
A
Study
in
Bureaucratic
Politics
by
Edmund
Beard
(New
York:
Columbia
University
Press,
1976,
xviii,
273PP,
$150.°)
Illusions
of Choice:
The
F-izi
and
the
Problem
of Weapons
Acquisition
Reform
by
Robert
F.
Coulam
(Princeton:
Princeton
University
Press,
1977,
xiv, 432pp,
$21.50).
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