The RAND Corporation
Subtitle: the reconfiguration of strategic studies in the United States
By: Jean-Loup Samaan ; translation by Renuka George
Series: The sciences po series in international relations and political economy
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; Springer
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 203
ISBN-13: 9780230340923
Subjects: Military research; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom & Security / General; Intellectual life; Influence; Military policy; POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General; Research institutes; POLITICAL SCIENCE / NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations); Rand Corporation; Foreign relations; History
Work titles: Rand corporation, 1989-2009
Description: "Based on a case study of the RAND Corporation, this book shows how the uncertainties of US defense policies since the fall of the USSR can be understood and accurately 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. Indeed, RAND as the quintessential Cold War think tank provides a fruitful illustration of the difficult adaptation of American strategic studies in the last two decades. "--

"1991, the Cold War is over. What happens then to the intellectuals who spent their life working and writing about the bipolar confrontation? This book is born out of this very question. Looking at one of the most emblematic American think tank in recent history, the RAND Corporation, it provides key insights on the evolution of strategic studies in the U.S. in the last two decades. Based on numerous interviews and exclusive archives, the research delivers a detailed analysis of RAND's intellectual and corporate development. But beyond this specific case study, the book is more than a historical portray of a American research center. Through RAND and its relationship with the American Military, it aims at understanding the rules of the "field" of strategic studies in the United States. Moreover this work allows the readers to better apprehend the way the elements driving the U.S. defense policies since 1989--the political uncertainty and its doctrinal consequences--shaped the major international events in the last two decades"--
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: 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?.