The War Game: A Critique of Military Problem Solving by Garry D. Brewer; Martin ShubikReview by: Andrew J. PierreForeign Affairs, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Spring, 1980), pp. 971-972Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20040523 .

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RECENT BOOKS 971

AMERICAN COMMUNICATION IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY. By Glen Fisher. Norwood (N.J.): Ablex, 1979, 161 pp. $17.50. NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICA TION. Edited by Kaarle Nordenstreng and Herbert I. Schiller. Norwood

(N.J.): Ablex, 1979, 304 pp. $24.50. Glen Fisher, a sociologist and former government official, accepts the

premise that the world has become an interdependent global society with which America inevitably communicates in one way or another; the questions he addresses concern how, what, and to what end. The Nordenstreng-Schiller book is a collection of readings expressing Western and Third World views on

the flow of information, with the weight tilted in favor of the latter. The editors have chosen national sovereignty as their unifying theme, which surely limits the scope of Fisher's global society.

THE POLITICS OF EAST-WEST COMMUNICATION IN EUROPE. By Karl E. Birnbaum. Westmead, Hants., (U.K.): Saxon House, 1979, 180 pp.

(Brookfield, Vt.: Renouf, distributor, $27.00). A longtime student of East-West negotiations takes off from "Basket 3" (of

the Helsinki Final Act) to explore future prospects for non-official intercom munications. Many of the specifics are provided by interviews with key persons

in West and East Germany and in Poland. The evidence permits some cautious and hedged conclusions, and in his own analysis Birnbaum stresses "the imperative of gradualism."

MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS AND U.N. POLITICS: THE QUEST FOR CODES OF CONDUCT. By Werner J. Feld. Elmsford (N.Y.): Pergamon Press, 1980, 173 pp. $18.50.

A respected expert in political economy directs his attention to the effort

being made in the United Nations to draw up a code of conduct for multinational corporations. Since this endeavor is part of the continuing North-South debate on whether and how the entire world economy ought to be reordered, it is not surprising that the deliberations, which Feld describes in detail, have fallen short of agreement.

General: Military, Technological\ and Scientific Andrew J. Pierre

LIMITED WAR REVISITED. By Robert E. Osgood. Boulder (Colo.): Westview Press, 1979, 124 pp. $15.00.

Those who read Robert Osgood's pioneering study of limited war published in 1957 will be especially interested in his latest volume. The "lessons" of

Vietnam are drawn?as are the limits to those lessons. But most interesting is

Osgood's sophisticated discussion of the implications, for the limited use of

force, of the Soviet Union's growing tendency to exploit conflicts in the Third

World, and the need to contain this trend. This elegant and carefully woven

essay should be widely read.

THE WAR GAME: A CRITIQUE OF MILITARY PROBLEM SOLVING. By Garry D. Brewer and Martin Shubik. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979, 385 pp. $18.50.

This rand book is a major study of modeling and gaming in order to simulate actual armed combat. Such activities play a role in establishing

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972 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

defense budgets and military strategy, but they are little understood. The authors seek both to explain this profession to the wider audience and to recommend ways of improving its performance. This is a serious work, and its

subject should be better understood by those who discuss today's "war scenarios."

THE FALL AND RISE OF THE PENTAGON: AMERICAN DEFENSE POLICIES IN THE 1970s. By Lawrence J. Korb. Westport (Conn.): Green wood Press, 1979, 192 pp. $19.95.

The author, a longtime student of U.S. defense affairs, argues that a combination of the Vietnam War, an overcentralized decision-making process under McNamara, and lack of congressional and public support led to the "decline" of the Defense Department in the late 1960s and early 1970s; he also believes that since the stewardship of Melvin Laird the Pentagon has been on the upswing. To a greater extent than he acknowledges, the Defense

Department reflects the politics of the country and the international environ ment. Nevertheless, there is much informed and valuable analysis in this book, and its relevance has been heightened by the new perspectives on defense

arising from the recent Iranian and Afghan crises.

ARMS AND POLITICS, 1958-1978. By Robin Ranger. Toronto: Macmillan, 1979, 280 pp.

As we move toward a necessary reexamination of the aims, means and

proper role of arms control, this book is well timed in providing a comprehen sive history of the record thus far. The text is knowledgeably grounded in the better writings of the past two decades. One need not fully accept the author's

dichotomy between technical (American) and political (Soviet) approaches to arms control to find this book of considerable value.

FUTURE ARMS PROCUREMENT: USA-EUROPE ARMS PROCURE MENT. By Egon Klepsch. London: Brassey's/New York: Crane, Russak,

1979, 95 pp. $14.50. The lack of greater progress in weapons cooperation continues to be a

matter of concern to Europeans. This report to the European Parliament by the German chairman of the Christian Democrat Group thoughtfully argues the need to include arms procurement as part of the European Community's industrial policy.

THE EFFECTS OF NUCLEAR WAR. By the Office of Technology Assess ment, U.S. Congress. Montclair (N.J.): Allanheld, Osmun, 1980, 160 pp. $9.95.

This is a detailed investigation of the major effects of nuclear explosions, under several carefully delineated scenarios, on the civilian population and economies of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. It is designed to add an often missing dimension to discussions of nuclear strategy and SALT. The study finds that the impact of even a "small" or "limited" nuclear attack would be enormous;

moreover, the effects that cannot be precisely calculated may be at least as

important as those which are predictable.

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION: THE SPENT FUEL PROBLEM. Edited by Frederick C. Williams and David A. Deese. Elmsford (N.Y.): Pergamon Press, 1979, 221 pp. $20.00.

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