"In the nuclear era there is less excuse than ever-if there ever was any- for thinking of strategy as the science of conducting a war that has already started, toward an end that is taken for granted.... Brodie's book is at once the most advanced comprehensive treatment of strategic problems and the closest thing to a textbook in a discipline so unorganized that it lacks even this mark of respectability.... Strategy in the Missile Age is intellectually accessible, written with a dignity and good taste that inspire confidence in the author's sense of responsibility, and enlightened by a rare touch in the use of historical perspective...." Science, February 1960

"This volume should go a long way to shake the complacency of any reader who has been recently exposed to the school of American defense which counsels that 'everything is under control...." -The Journal of Political Economy, August 1960

Strategy in the Missile Age was written during the dawn of the nuclear age, when the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles necessitated a massive rethinking of military strategy and power. Originally published in 1959, it retains ample relevance today for its discussion of the origins of air power, its cornerstone position in the evolution of Cold War-era nuclear strategy. and its treatment of preventive and preemptive attacks, deterrence, and the economics of strategy. Brodie, who believed nuclear war was "unthinkable," thought much about the unthinkable and helped provide an intellectual framework for avoiding a nuclear catastrophe. Nearly fifty years after its initial publication, and to celebrate RAND's 60th anniversary, RAND is proud to bring this classic work back into print in paperback and digital formats.