Doctoral Dissertation Research: Imagining the Unimaginable: War, Weapons and Procurement Politics

博士论文研究：想象难以想象的事情：战争、武器和采购政治

• 批准号: 1849585
• 负责人: Nina Tannenwald
• 金额: $ 1.58万
• 依托单位: Brown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-03-01 至 2021-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1849585&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Imagining; Unimaginable

This project examines how nations make choices about the military weapons that they design and use. Previous research suggests that decisions about weapons technologies are driven mainly by security concerns or financial needs, but such factors cannot explain current patterns of weapons development across nations. This project will instead test the theory that the ways in which those involved in war and weapons development in each nation (i.e. military personnel, scientists, private firms, etc.) conceptualize future warfare shapes the kinds of weapons that they seek to design and procure. This theory will be tested in relation to the development and procurement of aircraft carriers, stealth technology, and autonomous weapons in the United States, United Kingdom, France, and India. Data for testing the theory will come from analyses of military documents in national archives, in-depth interviews with key figures in each nation, and a survey experiment designed to uncover how decisions are made regarding military budgets and weapons procurement.This is a multi-method investigation of how and why nation states decide to create and procure different types of weapons technologies. It focuses on interactions among military personnel, politicians, scientists, private firms, and civil society organizations. The main contention is that these actors' conceptions of future warfare shape their choices about weapons procurement. Thus, each set of actors' identity, belief about the state of future conflict, and receptiveness to and interpretation of the laws and ethics of warfare shape the technical solutions that they will propose to different types of security threats. The extent to which these technological solutions are then transformed into weapons systems is predicted to be determined by the extent to which each set of actors has access to the decision-making process and the extent to which their ideas resonate with those of decision makers. The predicted result of interplay among these factors is that even when faced with similar threats, states end up making different choices regarding weapons procurement. This theory of weapons technology design and procurement will be tested by comparing archival, interview, and experimental data from the United States, United Kingdom, France, and India.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个项目考察了各国如何对他们设计和使用的军事武器做出选择。之前的研究表明，有关武器技术的决定主要是出于安全考虑或财务需求，但这些因素无法解释当前各国武器发展的模式。相反，这个项目将检验这样一种理论，即参与各国战争和武器发展的人(即军事人员、科学家、私营公司等)的方式。对未来战争的概念化决定了他们寻求设计和采购的武器种类。这一理论将在美国、英国、法国和印度的航空母舰、隐身技术和自主武器的开发和采购方面进行测试。检验这一理论的数据将来自对国家档案馆军事文件的分析，对每个国家关键人物的深入采访，以及旨在揭示军事预算和武器采购决策的调查实验。这是一项关于民族国家如何以及为什么决定创造和采购不同类型武器技术的多方法调查。它侧重于军事人员、政治家、科学家、私营公司和民间社会组织之间的互动。主要的争论是，这些行为者对未来战争的概念决定了他们在武器采购方面的选择。因此，每一组行为者的身份、对未来冲突状态的信念以及对战争法律和伦理的接受和解释形成了他们将为不同类型的安全威胁提出的技术解决方案。这些技术解决方案在多大程度上转化为武器系统，预计将取决于每一组行为者在多大程度上能够参与决策进程，以及他们的想法在多大程度上与决策者的想法产生共鸣。这些因素相互作用的预测结果是，即使面临类似的威胁，各国最终也会在武器采购方面做出不同的选择。这一武器技术设计和采购理论将通过比较美国、英国、法国和印度的档案、访谈和实验数据来检验。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。