Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (The United States in the World)

Bessner, Daniel

ISBN 10: 0801453038 / ISBN 13: 9780801453038

Published by Cornell University Press, 2018

About this Item

Seller Inventory # mon0004090675

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual (The United States in the World)
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801453038
• ISBN 13: 9780801453038
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Fine

About this title

Synopsis

In Democracy in Exile, Daniel Bessner explores the life of Hans Speier, one of the most significant figures in the history of U.S. defense policy.

Bessner traces Speier's intellectual development from Weimar Germany to the Cold War United States, revealing how his European roots shaped the expert-driven approach to foreign policymaking that American elites institutionalized during and after World War II. A key figure in a transatlantic network of émigré policymakers and analysts, Speier helped establish novel institutions such as the RAND Corporation that transformed how US foreign policy was made.

Democracy in Exile highlights how social scientists like Speier left academia to create a "military-intellectual complex" that insulated American decision making from public opinion and that continues to shape US defense policy today.

About the Author

Daniel Bessner is the Anne H. H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Assistant Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington.