| This dissertation examines strategic nuclear policy issues from the perspective of force management and organization. It divides the force management problem into the categories of warning, theater war, assessment in wartime, targeting, and command and control in order to advance certain core ideas which have broad applicability to national security policy. Recent policy issues, such as changes in nuclear targeting doctrine, crisis management, the threat to launch missiles on radar warning, deterrence, and European security are analyzed from this perspective.; The core ideas advanced are influenced by recent developments in organization and game theory, and center on the crisis and wartime behavior of military command organizations when constraints are placed on their ability to process information and coordinate actions. It is argued that both the American and Soviet nuclear command structures will pass from political to highly fragmented military control under wartime conditions, making political direction of a nuclear war highly unlikely. |
