STRATEGY, HEGEMONY AND IDEOLOGY - THE ROLE OF INTELLECTUALS

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.