Military analysts substitute tractable balance-of-numbers questions for harder sufficiency questions

Evidence

The drunkard’s search is illustrated by the way that the British judged German air power in the 1930s and American analysts compared Soviet and American nuclear strength throughout the cold war. In both cases, the basic question asked was “Who is ahead?” not “Do we have sufficient military force to support our foreign policy?” — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2591

Categorization

• DEFINE: Concrete definition of the drunkard’s search as applied to a domain: asking the manageable question rather than the important one.
• XREF: Connects to the general bias toward measurable over important criteria — echoes the Milgrom law-merchant material on information costs and measurable inputs.