Math Applications: A Case Study of the Soviet-American Arms Race

The use of mathematics as a research language in the social sciences is only now coming into its own, despite the power and versatility of mathematical techniques. Using the Soviet-American arms race as an illustration, the author argues that simple, straight-forward mathematical models of arming can not only help provide a concise description of existing arms acquisition patterns but can also be used to arrive a t theoretically and substantively interesting predictions about the outcomes of arms races.