"national interest"--economic, political, ideological; to maintain or in- crease a
nation's military power for its own sake. These are the visible, or ostensible,
functions of war. If there were no others, the importance of the war
establishment in each society might in fact decline to the subordinate level it is
believed to occupy. And the elimination of war would indeed be the procedural
matter that the disarmament scenarios suggest.
But there are other, broader, more profoundly felt functions of war in modern
societies. It is these invisible, or implied, functions that maintain war-readiness
as the dominant force in our societies. And it is the unwillingness or inability of
the writers of disarmament scenarios and reconversion plans to take them into
account that has so reduced the usefulness of their work, and that has made it
seem unrelated to the world we know.
nation's military power for its own sake. These are the visible, or ostensible,
functions of war. If there were no others, the importance of the war
establishment in each society might in fact decline to the subordinate level it is
believed to occupy. And the elimination of war would indeed be the procedural
matter that the disarmament scenarios suggest.
But there are other, broader, more profoundly felt functions of war in modern
societies. It is these invisible, or implied, functions that maintain war-readiness
as the dominant force in our societies. And it is the unwillingness or inability of
the writers of disarmament scenarios and reconversion plans to take them into
account that has so reduced the usefulness of their work, and that has made it
seem unrelated to the world we know.
