Economic conversion
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Economic conversion, defence conversion, or arms conversion, is a
Conversion should be distinguished from
History context
Among the key periods associated with economic conversion have been the postwar conversion after World War II, numerous experiments in diversification (with conversion of defense engineers' skills) in the period after the Vietnam War in the 1970s, and similar efforts after the Cold War. Various militarist and corporate critics battled labor and peace advocates during these conversion openings, with the former usually winning the day.
During the '50s, Western citizens and policymakers were impressed by the extensive impact on everyday life of civilian applications derived from military technologies, which were developed during the last years of the World War II. This happened within an institutional framework in which military and civilian Research and Development activities were separated, and the allocation of public and private resources was primarily addressed towards to the military needs and the priorities of national security systems.[1]
Since the 1960s, the military (deficit) spending was followed in Western countries by a large debate on the conversion from military to civilian industrial and technological activities. Two decades later, the issue on what was the existing hierarchy between the military and civilian R&D, was widely overcome by the concept of “dual-use” technologies, suggesting that military industrial farms and their products could be somewhere used for civilian purposes, and vice versa.[1]
Since the beginning of the Clinton's presidency in 1993, the American hi-tech companies were allowed to export a wide range of their products all over the world without prior Government approval. The new trade policies fostered the interchange with China, but ignored their long-term impact for national security and the need of intelligence agencies and government officials to track how those technologies were effectively used and to avoid them be improperly diverted to terrorista or frign military uses.[2]
In the contemporary period, from the late 1990s to the present day (circa 2010) the prospects for conversion have been constrained by regional conflicts, the so-called "
Modern thought
In modern times, a key figure in promoting the idea of economic conversion was the late Seymour Melman (1917–2004), a professor at Columbia University in the United States. In recent times, the idea has also been promoted by various scholars and activists, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s, in Europe, the United States, Israel and South Africa. Following the end of the Cold War, great attention was placed on the prospects for economic conversion.
Regarding differences in the 1970s and the postwar era,
Detailed
To be successful, conversion must be part of a larger political program involving, military budget reductions, reindustrialization, and infrastructure renewal. For example, if a given defense firm should convert, its production could be easily replaced by output from another firm. Marcus Raskin at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. has developed such a draft treaty for comprehensive disarmament.
See also
- Economics of defense
- Just Transition
References
- ^ a b Perani, Giulio (July 1997). "Military technologiesand commercial applications: Public policies in NATO countries" (PDF). Rome: CeSPI - Centro Studi di Politica Internazionale. pp. 7–8. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 5, 2019. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
- ^ Jeff Gerth; Eric P. Schmitt (Oct 19, 1998). "The Technology Trade: A special report; Chinese Said to Reap Gains In U.S. Export Policy Shift". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
- Jonathan M. Feldman, "The Conversion of Defense Engineers’ Skills: Explaining Success and Failure Through Customer-Based Learning, Teaming and Managerial Integration." Chapter 18 in The Defense Industry in the Post-Cold War Era: Corporate Strategy and Public Policy Perspectives, Gerald I. Susman and Sean O'Keefe, eds. Oxford: Elsevier Science, 1998.
- Jonathan Feldman, “Extending Disarmament Through Economic Democracy,” Peace Review, “Workplace Democracy,” Summer Issue, May, Volume 12, Number 2, 2000.
- Jonathan Michael Feldman, “Industrial Conversion: A Linchpin for Disarmament and Development,” Chapter 10 in Dimensions of Peace and Security, Gustaaf Geeraerts, Natalie Pauwels, and Éric Remacle, eds. Brussels: Peter Lang, 2006.
- Ann Markusen and Joel Yudken, Dismantling the Cold War Economy, New York: Basic Books, 1992.
- Jonathan Michael Feldman, “From Mass Transit to New Manufacturing,” The American Prospect, April 2009: A12-A16.
- Seymour Melman, The Defense Economy: Conversion of Industries and Occupations to Civilian Needs, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970.
- Seymour Melman, The Permanent War Economy: American Capitalism in Decline, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974.
- Seymour Melman, After Capitalism: From Managerialism to Workplace Democracy, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.