When Costs Approach Infinity: Microeconomic Theory, Security, and Dangerous Technologies

Abstract

Over the years, political scientists have dominated academic analysis of issues concerning national and international security. Operating mainly within a paradigm of power, political scientists of the so-called “realist” school have tended to view force and the threat of force as the most effective means for achieving security. If power is the ultimate arbiter in the international arena and military force its most compelling manifestation, it follows that the weapons that can do the most frightful damage will become the most potent symbols of international standing. Looking at the world through these eyes, it is easy to understand the grotesque romance so many security analysts and policy makers have had with nuclear weapons since the birth of the atomic age in the deserts of New Mexico two-thirds of a century ago. And so we continue to live, two decades after the Cold War passed into history, with a profusion of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction spread among a growing number of nations.

The paradigms of economists have much more to do with choice and incentive than with force and coercion. Considering the growing support for the idea of nuclear disarmament, there may be a great opportunity, in this moment of history, to help bring about the kind of paradigmatic shift that can encourage the removal of the nuclear sword of Damocles with which we have all lived for so long. Perhaps, the tools of economics can help point the way to a world that is not only more productive but also more secure.

Citation

Dumas, L.J. (2011), "When Costs Approach Infinity: Microeconomic Theory, Security, and Dangerous Technologies", Chatterji, M., Bo, C. and Misra, R. (Ed.) Frontiers of Peace Economics and Peace Science (Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Vol. 16), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 59-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1572-8323(2011)0000016008