The Star Wars proposal resulted from the conjuncture of several factors: an organizational and technological base in the weapons laboratories and aerospace industry, effective advocacy by powerful individuals and organizations, and the need of the Reagan administration for a public relations response to the nuclear freeze. The bureaucratic politics, decision process, and social movements paradigms are most useful for explaining the initiation of the proposal. Rational analysis, pressure group, organizational process, and garrison state theories help us to explain the policy outcome.
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