University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation

This paper is the beginning of an analysis of the nature of nuclear strategic thinking; its emphasis is on the role of a specialized language that I call "technostrategic." I have come to believe that this language both reflects and shapes the nature ofthe American nuclear strategic project; that it plays a central role in allowing defenseintellectuals to think and act as they do; and that all of us who are concerned about nuclear weaponry and nuclear war must give careful attention to the role of language we and others choose to use -- who it allows us to communicate with, and what it allows us to think as well as say.