War

Abstract

War had only a brief career as a social problem in the postwar United States. This chapter argues that social scientists largely treated war as a national security challenge, a tool of statecraft that could be wielded wisely by expert-informed policy officials. In the hands of international relations experts, think tank analysts, and a new cohort of quantitative political scientists, war was not a social problem but rather a managerial challenge. This chapter is a contribution to Society on the Edge: Social Science and Public Policy in the Postwar United States, edited by Philippe Fontaine and Jefferson Pooley.