Contents
The Security Dilemma is not only about weapons. It concerns everything that strengthens a state’s power and can be used for protection as well as for attack. That includes science and technology. The Sputnik crisis shows how a scientific success on one side is received as a danger by the other and sets off a race in which schools and lecture halls become front lines.
A beep from space
Situation
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union puts Sputnik 1 into orbit. The satellite is a small sphere with antennas that transmits radio signals. A few weeks later, Sputnik 2 follows with the dog Laika on board. The rocket that carries Sputnik into space is a modified intercontinental ballistic missile.
Link to the principle
For the Soviet Union, Sputnik is a triumph of science and a coup for its prestige. For the United States, the real news is something else: if you can put a satellite into orbit, you can also carry a warhead across continents. The same capability has two faces, and the other side sees the threatening one.
The shock
Situation
In the United States, Sputnik sets off a debate about the country’s own weakness. Critics accuse the American school system of lagging behind in mathematics and science. It is perceived as a security crisis for society as a whole. In December 1957, an American Vanguard rocket explodes on launch; it is not until January 1958 that a U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, reaches orbit.
Link to the principle
The Security Dilemma feeds on perception. Whether the Soviet Union actually had a lead matters less than the fear of it. Fear determines action, and the response is correspondingly large.
The response: education as defense
Situation
On September 2, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Defense Education Act. The name itself says what it is about: education for national defense. The law funds low-interest student loans, with $47.5 million for fiscal year 1959, rising to $90 million by 1962. It promotes above all mathematics and science, as well as modern foreign languages, engineering and school guidance counseling, which is meant to identify gifted students early. Anyone who receives money must sign a loyalty oath to the U.S. government.
Link to the principle
The United States arms not only with missiles but with minds. In the same year, the research agency ARPA and the space agency NASA are founded. From the American point of view, this is pure defense. How Moscow read the education offensive is hard to document. What is certain is that the Soviet Union also keeps expanding its space and missile technology, and each side sees the other’s progress as a challenge.
The race
Situation
In the years that follow, both sides step up their efforts in spaceflight, missile technology and research. The space race becomes the most visible part of this competition. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space; in the same year, John F. Kennedy announces the goal of a moon landing.
Link to the principle
Every success on one side becomes the occasion for the next effort on the other. This is the spiral John H. Herz described: neither side wants to attack, but neither can be sure that the other doesn’t. So both build up.
The good side of the dilemma
Situation
The education offensive produces a generation of engineers, mathematicians and scientists. Many of the law’s programs have an effect far beyond the Cold War.
Link to the principle
A security dilemma doesn’t have to be purely destructive. Where the competition takes place in education and research, it also creates lasting value. The danger is that the same dynamic can just as easily play out with weapons.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- Your successes can come across to others as a threat.
- Many capabilities have two faces: protection and attack.
- The perception of falling behind drives people harder than falling behind itself.
- If you do get drawn into a race, invest in something that lasts.
- Check whether your response just keeps the spiral turning.
Summary
Sputnik 1 was a scientific success for the Soviet Union and at the same time proof of its missile power. The United States responded with the National Defense Education Act, with ARPA and NASA. Each side saw its own efforts as defense and those of the other as a danger. And so a satellite set off a race in science and spaceflight, a security dilemma with classrooms as its stage.
Sources
- John H. Herz: Idealist Internationalism and the Security Dilemma. In: World Politics 2 (1950), No. 2, pp. 157–180.
