8 - The iron cage of proliferation

Summary

Introduction

This chapter aims to show the ways in which the substantivist trope has come to be incorporated into the contemporary case for ballistic missile defence in the United States. It does so initially by tracing the manner in which a discourse of technological fears, centring on the fear of spreading nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology, emerged in government circles in the 1990s alongside the rhetoric of technological optimism associated with the ‘revolution in military affairs’ in the same decade. This framing of the missile threat to the USA accords closely with the category of substantivism outlined in previous chapters, as is further illustrated in relation to both literature on nuclear proliferation in general and to missile defence advocacy in particular. However, rather than obviating arguments for missile defence, this language of substantivism has been incorporated into building a common sense case for missile defence, and it acts as a logical counterpart to the more instrumentalist, progressivist understanding of technology examined in the previous chapter. This is shown through analysis of arguments made by key proponents of missile defence within strategic studies, the rhetoric of the Bush administration, and the use of homologous arguments made in the broader promotion of missile defence by government agencies and non-governmental advocacy groups. In doing so these more substantivist representations of technology help replicate the contradictory, common sense view of technology within contemporary justifications of missile defence.