Buildup: The Politics of Defense in the Reagan Era

The eight-year Reagan presidency not only initiated the largest peacetime military buildup in American history but also altered traditional partisan alignments and revised the policy agenda of the welfare state. In his insightful book, Daniel Wirls clarifies the relationship between defense policy and domestic policy during this period of significant political change when he examines three defense policies, the political coalitions behind them, and their interactions.
Wirls discusses the use of the rhetoric and resources of national security to build and maintain Reagan's conservative coalition and undermine Democratic politics; the importance of the peace movement in the mobilization of liberal opposition to the Reagan revolution; and the adoption and promotion of military reform, particularly by members of Congress, in response to the clash between the peace movement and the Reagan administration. He probes the political competition among these institutions and coalitions by examining three major defense policy initiatives--the Strategic Defense Initiative for the Reagan administration, the nuclear freeze proposal from the peace movement and the Democratic party, and the attempts by the military reform lobby in Congress to change the Pentagon's procurement practices--and he weighs the impact of those forces on the defense debate and domestic politics.
Treating an inadequately developed aspect of the political process, this book will be of great interest to political scientists and historians concentrating in American domestic politics, security affairs specialists, and military historians.