Various scholars and media researchers have adopted the view, that due to the Cold War, war discourse has become the dominant discourse in Western media and popular culture. We live in a deeply militarized culture in which for instance many ordinary metaphors have their roots in war and popular culture is full of war material. Consuming war as a natural part of everyday entertainment, the "war ...

During the Cold War the United States developed an espionage style that reflected its love affair with technology (technophilia) whereas the Soviet Union and the East Bloc continued a tradition of using humans to collect intelligence. This essay places the origins and development of these espionage styles during the Cold War in historical and social context, and assesses their strengths and wea...

This article argues that the history of geography should be written from an externalist perspective; that is, its history should be directly related to the larger historical context in which it is embedded. My example is American human geography during the early Cold War period. The argument is that as a result of America’s experience during the Second World War, the USA mobilised its academy t...

Nuclear weapons have been a cornerstone of U.S. national security since they were developed during World War II. In the Cold War, nuclear forces were central to U.S. defense policy, resulting in the buildup of a large arsenal. Since that time, nuclear forces have figured less prominently than conventional forces, and the United States has not built any new nuclear weapons or delivery systems fo...

Since the dawn of the missile age, national security decisionmakers have sought to achieve a delicate balance between having a credible nuclear deterrent and ensuring the safety of nuclear weapons from unauthorized or accidental use. During the Cold War, when the United States and Russia perceived each other as a serious threat, the balance was weighted heavily toward the credibility of the det...