"Based on a case study of the RAND Corporation, this book shows how the uncertainties of US defense policies since the fall of the USSR can be understood and accurately illustrated through an analysis of the evolution of the think tank community, and more particularly through a sociological study of the so-called "defense intellectuals" such as the RAND Corporation. Indeed, RAND as the quintessential Cold War think tank provides a fruitful illustration of the difficult adaptation of American strategic studies in the last two decades. "--"1991, the Cold War is over. What happens then to the intellectuals who spent their life working and writing about the bipolar confrontation? This book is born out of this very question. Looking at one of the most emblematic American think tank in recent history, the RAND Corporation, it provides key insights on the evolution of strategic studies in the U.S. in the last two decades. Based on numerous interviews and exclusive archives, the research delivers a detailed analysis of RAND's intellectual and corporate development.

But beyond this specific case study, the book is more than a historical portray of a American research center. Through RAND and its relationship with the American Military, it aims at understanding the rules of the "field" of strategic studies in the United States. Moreover this work allows the readers to better apprehend the way the elements driving the U.S. defense policies since 1989--the political uncertainty and its doctrinal consequences--shaped the major international events in the last two decades"--.