This article argues that in the United States international relations
scholars and political scientists have been significantly involved in
the articulation of critical areas of state policy, especially in the
arena of national security. The political significance of this is not
merely a matter of individuals influencing policy; it concerns the con
struction of modes of discourse which legitimize aspects of state poli
cy. In the problematic domain of nuclear strategic theory this has bee
n pivotal in providing elites with a language which neutralized the po
litical threat created by policies of nuclear apocalypse. Thus the pow
er of intellectuals must be seen as more than a question of institutio
nal location. It resides partly in the creation of discourse which con
stitutes the symbolic reality of political argumentation.