ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on an argument that suggests that the way in which nation states have become structured on the basis of modern militarized science prefigures a “slope” toward war. The historian E. P. Thompson deals with the idea of drift by introducing the concept of inertia in his analysis of the current crisis: But to structure an analysis in a consecutive rational manner may be to impose a consequential rationality upon the object of analysis. The most important aspects of drift are its unplanned nature and the fact that it is the cumulation of a series of decisions and actions, that have led in the direction of war the most powerful world nation-states. The drift to war has been accelerated by the building of a permanent war economy. As Admiral Rickover made abundantly clear in his last testimony before Congress, the United States defense industry is self-interested and profit motivated.
