The Myth of Security

Abstract

THERE is a basic paradox in coupling the word defense with modern military means and methods. The atomic bomb, the long-range plane, the giant missile have demol ished so many security concepts that defense, measured by any military yardstick, has become chiefly a reflex of retaliation. In a search for defense, men have broken the boundaries of space and solved many of the mysteries of nature. But, ironically, they have made themselves less secure than before. The rise of nation-states, the growth of populations, the industrial revolution and a new technological revolution have made war total. Defense is completely incompatible with the realities of modern warfare, and if it dominates the military thinking of a nation it is a term synonymous with defeat. No theory of limited liability, of de fensive strategy or tactics, can win the war of tomorrow. Man's attempts to limit the destructiveness and outlaw some of the horror of war are not likely to succeed unless power is linked to reality. The great general problem of the twentieth cen tury, as of all past centuries, is to harness justice with power, idealism with realism. Moral factors ? the ebb and flow of in