The War Game

Studies of the New Civilian Militarists

Irving Horowitz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351301626
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politique et relations internationales
• Subtopic: Politique

War gaming has become a characteristic feature of modern life. From amateur clubs to professional academicians playing the war game in the company of military circles, we have come up against the phenomenon of the "robotization" of human life. Irving Louis Horowitz argues that those who protest the idea that war is a game do so on moral grounds that leave unanswered tough questions: What is the alternative to playing the game? What will become of us if we allow the opponent to become the better "player" in an all-or-nothing game of extinction?

Horowitz provides answers in a logical manner while focusing on facts and ethical alternatives to risky ethics. The work is divided into three sections: The New Civilian Militarists, Thermonuclear Peace and Its Political Equivalents, and General Theory of Conflict and Conflict Resolution. Included are such topics as arms, policies, and games; morals, missiles, and militarism; and conflict, consensus, and cooperation.

Horowitz concludes that it is time to register the fact that the basic option to destructive uses of science is not traditional morality, but better science a science of survival. With a new introduction by Howard Schneiderman along with a major essay and other materials not included in the original edition, this classic work is a worthy contribution to intellectual debate in the twenty-first century and a must read for military strategists, sociologists, and historians.

Subject Index

absolutism, 61, 101

administrative fiat, 51–53, 55

Africa, 111, 112

aggression, 6, 10, 30, 52, 102, 107, 123, 168

Air Defense Command (ADC), 4

Air Force, 170

American Civil War, 106

American Friends Service Committee, 95, 149

American military posture, 3, 23

annihilation, 11, 15–16, 18, 29–30, 32, 43, 52, 57, 59, 73, 88–90, 92–93, 100, 105, 111, 116, 118, 120–121, 126, 139, 158, 161, 163

game of, 30

scientific, 88, 105

and warfare, 11, 15, 116, 118

anomie, 108, 138

antimilitarism, 33, 36, 38, 40–42, 44–45

of the left, 40–41

antimilitaristic posture, 40

armed forces, 50, 52

arms control, 5–11, 108, 123, 173

arms escalation, 10, 16, 29, 43, 115

arms policy, 6, 79

arms race, 6, 12, 19, 22, 27–28, 30, 44, 56, 85, 88, 94, 108, 112, 121, 126–127, 152

bi-polar, 6

and de-escalation, 6, 28, 127

escalation of, 79, 94

arms reduction, 23, 30–31

army, 3, 62, 158, 170

Asia, 50, 53–54, 82, 111–112

Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), 36

automatic nuclear response...