National Defense
Categories: Politics & Social Sciences
National Defense is a 1981 book by journalist James Fallows, then Washington editor of The Atlantic, that critically examines how the United States military buys weapons and plans for war. It won an American Book Award. Fallows argues that the Pentagon's preference for complex, costly high-tech systems often produced weapons that performed poorly in combat, and that bureaucratic incentives shaped procurement more than real military needs. The book became an influential text in the military reform movement.
Recommended by 1 person
- Patrick Collison: “Military procurement turns out to yield interesting management reading—scrutinized from multiple perspectives; lots of pathologies to analyze; R&D a major factor. Recommend: - Boyd (Coram) - National Defense (Fallows) - Augustine’s Laws (Augustine)”