Informed Dissent and Academic Research

Abstract

It is difficult to determine whether an 'academic establishment' can be traced sociologically among the 1,000 American campuses listed in the 1964 almanacs. Certainly, there is an establishment east of mind in the 'knowledge industry,' as it has been called. For evidence of this academic attitude one need look no further than at the recent proliferation of studies of U.S. foreign policy, deterrence theory, and economic growth problems. They have lately become fashionable among Faculty research institutions and financially well-supported by outside sources. Axiomatic among most of these studies is the assumed continuance of the Cold War and the narrowest possible definition of national interest. Lacking almost com? pletely is the imagination to criticize the fundamental premises of American strategy or to cope with the revolutionary measures necessary to achieve a disarmed world. Indeed, it sometimes seems embarrassing to remind some of the academicians in this new field of study that the United States is officially committed to General and Complete Disarmament and to the replacement of a war system with a radically changed sense of world community. Notwithstanding the encouragement and research contracts of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, the 'establishment* think? ing of American academia has been directed cautiously to the clarification of limited and immediate problems and not to the exploration of basic policy choices.