Arms And Innovation

With many of the most important new military systems of the past decade produced by small firms that won competitive government contracts, defense-industry consultant James Hasik argues in Arms and Innovation that small firms have a number of advantages relative to their bigger competitors. Such firms are marked by an entrepreneurial spirit and fewer bureaucratic obstacles, and thus can both be more responsive to changes in the environment and more strategic in their planning. This is demonstrated, Hasik shows, by such innovation in military technologies as those that protect troops from roadside bombs in Iraq and the Predator drones that fly over active war zones and that are crucial to our new war on terror. For all their advantages, small firms also face significant challenges in access to capital and customers. To overcome such problems, they can form alliances either with each other or with larger companies. Hasik traces the trade-offs of such alliances and provides crucial insight into their promises and pitfalls. This ground-breaking study is a significant contribution to understanding both entrepreneurship and alliances, two crucial factors in business generally. It will be of interest to readers in the defense sector as well as the wider business community.

Evangelista provides a new framework for analyzing U.S. and Soviet innovations in weapons technology. In America, development is generated from the bottom up with scientists providing the initial impetus. Soviet weapons innovation occurs from the top down, as soviet leaders react to external forces, particularly American initiatives. With current weapons programs such as the Strategic Defense Initiative, the author sees opportunities for arms control. The United States must recognize that technological innovation is no guarantee of security. The Soviet Union must decide not to match American innovation. ISBN 0-8014-2165-9: $32.95.

Arms and Influence explores the complex relationship between technology, policymaking, and international norms. Modern technological innovations such as the atomic bomb, armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and advanced reconnaissance satellites have fostered debates about the boundaries of international norms and legitimate standards of behavior. These advances allow governments new opportunities for action around the world and have, in turn, prompted a broader effort to redefine international standards in areas such as self-defense, sovereignty, and preemptive strikes. In this book, Jeffrey S. Lantis develops a new theory of norm change and identifies its stages, including redefinition (involving domestic political deliberations) and constructive norm substitution (in multilateral institutions). He deftly takes some of the most controversial new developments in military technologies and embeds them in international relations theory. The case evidence he presents suggests that periods of change are underway across numerous different issue areas.

This book examines Western military technological innovation through the lens of developments in small arms during the twentieth century. These weapons have existed for centuries, appear to have matured only incrementally and might seem unlikely technologies for investigating the trajectory of military-technical change. Their relative simplicity, however, makes it easy to use them to map patterns of innovation within the military- industrial complex. Advanced technologies may have captured the military imagination, offering the possibility of clean and decisive outcomes, but it is the low technologies of the infantryman that can help us develop an appreciation for the dynamics of military-technical change. Tracing the path of innovation from battlefield to back office, and from industry to alliance partner, Ford develops insights into the way that small arms are socially constructed. He thereby exposes the mechanics of power across the military- industrial complex. This in turn reveals that shifting power relations between soldiers and scientists, bureaucrats and engineers, have allowed the private sector to exploit infantry status anxiety and shape soldier weapon preferences. Ford's analysis allows us to draw wider conclusions about how military innovation works and what social factors frame Western military purchasing policy, from small arms to more sophisticated and expensive weapons.

Weapons proliferation is one of the most pressing global concerns following the end of the Cold War. Despite the absence of an overarching superpower conflict, armaments and related technologies have continued to spread throughout the international system. This has been particularly true in areas like East Asia and the Middle East, where the traditional two party arms races are not readily apparent. This text addresses these concerns and shortcomings using data on fourteen specific military technological innovations that diffused throughout the international system from 1960 to 1997.

Of proceedings / Herbert M. Levine -- New technologies and new weapons systems / Kosta Tsipis -- Can conventional new technologies and new tactics replace tactical nuclear weapons in Europe? / Jorma K. Miettinen -- International political economy of proliferation / Steven J. Baker -- Arms limitation and security policies required to minimise the proliferation of nuclear weapons / Enid C.B. Schoettle -- Anglo-American nuclear relationship : proliferatroy or anti-proliferatory? / David Carlton -- Proliferation : sophisticated weapons and revolutionary options -- the sub-state perspective / J. Bowyer Bell -- Arms and politics : old issues, new perceptions / Michael Nacht -- Different approach to arms control -- reciprocal unilateral restraint / Herbert Scoville, Jr. -- New approach to strategic arms limitation and reduction / William Epstein -- Strategic arms limitation and military strategic concepts / M.A. Milstein -- Nuclear testing -- no end in sight? / Thomas A. Halsted -- Reconnaissance satellites and the arms race / Herbert F. York -- Realities of arms control : the cruise missile case / Robert A. Nalewajek -- Diffusion of economic and military power and its impact on the Middle East Conflict / Mario'n Mushkat -- Fallacy of thinking conventionally about nuclear weapons / Hans J. Morgenthau -- All at sea? A critique of the American strategic force structure / Peter King -- Function of military power / B.V.A. Roling -- 116 wars in 30 years / Istvan Kende -- Role of arms in capitalist economies : the process of overdevelopment and underdevelopment / Mary Kaldor -- Economic and technological prerequisites for achieving political and military stability / Tom Stonier.