Democracy in Exile

<p><b>In</b><b><i> Democracy in Exile</i></b><b> Daniel Bessner explores the life of Hans Speier one of the most significant figures in the history of US defense policy. </p><p></b>Bessner traces Speier's intellectual development from Weimar Germany to the Cold War United States revealing how his European roots shaped the expert-driven approach to foreign policymaking that American elites institutionalized during and after World War II. A key figure in a transatlantic network of émigré policymakers and analysts Speier helped establish novel institutions like the RAND Corporation that transformed how US foreign policy was made. </p><p><i>Democracy in Exile </i>highlights how social scientists like Speier left academia to create a military-intellectual complex that insulated American decision-making from public opinion and which continues to shape US defense policy today.</p>