Identity frame at metaphor layer as the driving force for nuclear strategy: The US nuclear strategy during the cold war

Abstract

The formation of a nation’s nuclear strategy is understood from a typical structuralist perspective of security strategy studies and international politics. This makes it difficult to not only derive new strategic alternatives but also anticipate what nuclear strategy patterns can be developed in the future. This study aims to deepen our understanding of nuclear strategy formation through causal layered analysis and to present new strategic alternatives to existing discourse. Therefore, this study examines the driving force that influences nuclear strategy formation and changes in implicit cognitive layers. The cognitive variables of identity are derived, and the causal layered analysis framework is used to explain how identity factors give meaning to concepts regarding national security and how the concepts are linked to strategic initiatives. Furthermore, this study assumes that nuclear strategy arises from interactions among the key frame variables in the cognitive layers. The US nuclear strategy cases are examined using this theoretical framework to understand how their interactions have shaped security concepts and been reflected in the nuclear strategy discourse. This study derives propositions that the ingroup definition of identity frames affects nuclear strategy as a driving force and that interpreting the explicit layers’ realities by the implicit frames affects the formation of security concepts and the direction of nuclear strategy.