A $10,400 grant was awarded to Paul Culhane, associate professor, Center for Governmental Studies, Tuesday enabling him to finish a book about the politics behind a dismissed proposal for an MX Missile site in the United States.

“It will be a very scholarly piece” covering the politics about the Air Force proposal to base the MX Missile in the Nevada-Utah-California area in the early 1980s, an idea that was dismissed because of its extensiveness, Culhane said.

The proposed missile site, refered to as MPS (Multiple Protective Shelter) base and “the dragstrip,” would have called for the construction of missile shelters, each one mile apart, covering thousands of miles of land.

The philosophy was that there would be 23 shelters for each missile so they could be transferred from one shelter to another if their security was threatened.

“The case study is fascinating because of the politics involved,” Culhane said. “If you try to base a huge project on federal lands, so many interests of others, such as livestock owners, mining industry, environmental groups and state and local governments, who are deadset against the MX being built, become involved.”

The purpose of Culhane’s book is to draw a picture of the complexities involved in such a proposal, in order to show federal government agencies how nonsensical their plans are, he said.

“It’s not one of the bigger grants awarded by the foundation and it is a very small grant for NIU,” said Culhane, who elected to have his $10,400 grant to be awarded through NIU.

Culhane’s interest in national security resulted in the award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which is interested in promoting literature showing the complexities and therefore persuading against such defense plans.

Millions of dollars have been granted to individuals since the beginning of the foundation in 1978, when founder John MacArthur died, leaving the bulk of his fortune to give to enterprising individuals. MacArthur was the sole owner of the largest private insurance firm in the nation, the Bankers’ Life and Casualty Company.

Since most foundations limit their funding to organizations, the MacArthur Foundation is known as “unusual,” Culhane said. The foundation dedicates itself to finding and awarding money to promising individuals, as well as organizations, who possess insights and readily research problems and issues they see as important in the world.