ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the some reasons we might expect intellectual improvement and why, in fact, progress has been relatively slight. Bernard Brodie was one of the first people to think seriously about the impact of nuclear weapons on world politics. It thus is useful to ask how more recent arguments relate to his. The centerpiece of Brodie’s position was the claim that nuclear weapons revolutionized both military strategy and the relationships between force and foreign policy. In the realm of ideas, there are great incentives to innovate. Credit goes to people who say something original and interesting. The most important old, good ideas have already been mentioned. Primary is the concept of the nuclear revolution with the concomitant implication that many prenuclear ideas are now inappropriate. Although the bulk of the ideas, good and bad, that dominate strategic thinking date from the first fifteen years of the nuclear era, some are fairly new.
