MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL ISSUES
Military expenditures are considered unproductive, spending as if safety was a given in a cosmopolitan assumed world (j. Fontanel, 1995b). Yet, in the 1990s, States favored the development of national armaments industries, for security purposes to ensure the independence of their armed forces. Defence was a voluntarism, founded on fear of the cold war. Budgetary choices were heavily influenced by the design and the military sector, often consisting of monopolies or monopsonies, had its own rules, which were highly autonomous in the market.
Competition between the undertakings mainly exercised in the allocation of public funds, endowment procedures at the outset of the process of production, and the potential for research and innovation firms was highly valued. In addition, public choice were largely dependent on political considerations. Thus, Rockwell, firm in its quest for broad support program B1, had succeeded in relate directly by subcontracting, more than 90% of Congressional districts.
In the early 1980s, the thesis that highly developed military research had significant impact in the civilian sector was not challenged. More sophisticated military technology appeared ahead of his civil counterpart, but arguments concerning the economic importance of its effects on the development process was not verified. Yet, the turn of the cold war has probably been reached in the strategic defense initiative.
Before the sums in the coming years, which were to be devoted to military research, the Soviet Union of Gorbachev was called upon to negotiate a disarmament. It was possible to make an extra effort, it was more than 80% of its national development research in the military sector. It is probably not accurate to say that the IDS project was the decisive factor in the fall of communism, but it has been the shining developer. Decline in progressive and comparative economic competitiveness of the United States and the exceptional advent of two powers defeated the last world war as an example of production of wealth has led economists to revise a thesis benefits which appeared yet well established. Several studies have started to challenge this thesis, more easily that in certain sectors of economic activity taken civilian sector one advance consequent, thereby condemning all potential effects of military technologies.
The fall of the Berlin wall has transformed the power relations and military strategies, break with the traditional dichotomous vision of a Europe dominated by two nuclear powers is, at least temporarily, consumed. As a vector of national sovereignty defence industry now seems to constitute a bygone vision. Current wars do not appear to cause the risk of a globalisation of conflicts and the new global balance is more based on terror. Result is interesting implications for research and development less dependent of an intense lobbying, military and more concerned by the cost-performance ratio. In other words, good economic management considerations take precedence over politicalstrategic necessities. Restructuring in the defence sector is engaged in the sense of a dual destination industrial complexes related to defence, commonly called: duality
The concept of duality refers to technologies that military also civilian applications. It is often argued and presented in an international atmosphere for relaxation and reduction in effort of defence as a panacea, including industrial circles. Technology is defined as the combination of a quantity of information with knowledge and the nature is intrinsic to the organization that implements processing activity. It explains an ability to design and produce groups of goods by the complex combination of work, knowledge and capital do. She appealed both in the production of new assets to control and eventual sharing, between civilian and military counterpart, new processes of production. The very idea of technological duality suggests the existence of gateways between military and civilian uses.
Thus, the France has long made the military technological innovation system national privileged area, any innovation in the civilian sector may have interests to defend. The duality is bilateral and the Pentagon has transformed its agency DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) in ARPA (open to all technologies Agency). There is a duality of research, technology and technological capability.
With regard to basic science, their characteristics are universal. However, military sector can influence the selection of funded programs, bearing in mind that there are more researchers completely isolated, capable, without funds, to develop new knowledge. In the history of the world, if fundamental research maintains its qualities of General knowledge, it is in is not less guided by this awareness topics on which researchers are working. Thus the major axes are more or less encouraged grow between biology, mathematics, medicine. Sometimes there is a close convergence between military and civilian needs, but it does more or less urgent character of some research reflects social concerns, which also depend on specific national security issues.
Applied research on the other hand meets economic and social objectives specific and concrete. If the search base is in itself generic, technology is rarely dual, that is to say to use is done, except perhaps in the aerospace field. The design of public policy diffusion of innovations in the military to the civilian is hardly relevant for many industrial sectors in which the civil sector is dominant. More personal research have not needed to take account of the imperatives of research and civil production obsessed by the profitability in the short term courses.
Failures were numerous: Avco video films, Boeing, seaplane computing for Raytheon or Lockheed aircraft maintenance. The mastery of technology cannot, alone, a decisive success factor sue civil markets. Support the conversion of the Bush plan was the subject of many responses on the part of firms, but the proposals were generally aligned with the requirements of the market. The State is not always a good adjudicator to determine the projects which should be successful with consumers.
This frantic race to establish a constantly improved weapons has led to an excessive armament that sparked reaction, international environment obliges, reflections and disarmament negotiations.
Disarmament today is an integral part of economic defense. After years of pseudo-désarmement, powers are entered into the heart of the matter. Nuclear disarmament, with the signing of the Treaty of Washington (1987) on the intermediate nuclear forces and the Moscow Treaty (1991), result of the negotiations Start (Strategic Arms Reduction Talk). Conventional disarmament, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1990) in the resulting from the Conference on security and cooperation in Europe (C.S.C.E). Disarmament budget with decreasing military equipment, including in the United States, France, Great Britain and Germany credits.
This process, which obeys both political and economic logic is earlier in the year 1990. Before the second Gulf war, political indicators gave more or less to draw a positive evolution of international relations towards an appeasing geostrategic tensions. From there, it seemed logical to take the opportunity to disarmament. The crisis of the 1980s (deficit, unemployment) could not having no impact on military spending that public opinion in General, do not include priority is not given to social spending (health, education, environment). It is in this context that fits the new issue of disarmament.
According to Jacques Fontanel, there are three major forms of disarmament: the destruction of military equipment, reduction of military spending and the prohibition of the production of certain types of weapons. These three forms are not exclusive of the other and can be conducted simultaneously by a State. The intermediate nuclear forces treaty thus covers destruction of existing stockpiles (approximately 4 per cent of all nuclear forces) and foreseeable limitations of military expenditures. But the economy expected is not immediate. A disarmament process involves in effect control and verification whose costs are not insignificant: establishment of satellite observation for verifying the reality of disarmament, not to mention the cost of the actual weapons destruction. Direct financial cost must be added important industrial and social costs. A reduction of military spending must be analysed in terms of opportunity cost. At the global level, it translates immediately by loss of employment, or even the beginnings of regional or sectoral recession recession. Transfer to other sectors come after. Economies are indeed strong effects of inertia which makes very malleable labour and industrial equipment. Examples abound of entire regions undergoing currently head-on the decline of military expenditures. Estimated spending cuts pushed 9p.100 unemployment in California after the Gulf war, General Dynamics (manufacturer of the F16) proceeded to 27000 job losses and Mc Donnel Douglas (F-14etF-15) terminated 16000 people than 112000. The existence of a national industry weapons, especially when she is strongly integrated in the economic fabric, is from this point of view a disability. Except to discover profitable conversion process. Or the conversion of military-industrial complex is likely to be a decoy.
The international situation actuelle and dominated mainly by the willingness of States to meet the economic challenges justifies disarmament initiatives and largely facilitated by retraining opportunities. However, the nature of contemporary conflicts which cause global stability and therefore nature even military interventions, add another dimension to international issues of the economy of the defence.
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