Armaments after autonomy: Military adaptation and the drive for domestic defence industries

ABSTRACT

State investments in domestic defence industries are one of the most puzzling trends in international relations. Economists contend that these investments waste resources, while political scientists claim that armaments’ resultant overproduction fuels arms races. Why then do governments cultivate defence industries? I draw on cases from Israel, South Africa and Iraq to argue that the answers to these questions are distinct. Fears about supply security frequently spur states to begin developing arms industries, and elites’ techno-nationalist beliefs often sustain their defence-industrial investments. Defence industries’ primary national security value, however, lies in their hitherto unappreciated contribution to states’ military adaptation capacity.

KEYWORDS:

• Military adaptation
• defence industry
• armaments
• security of supply
• Israel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplemental material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Notes

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⁴⁰ The statistically most average cases are (in declining order): Iran, Israel, Poland, Taiwan and Turkey.

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⁵⁸ Peres was the Defense Ministry’s Deputy Director-General in 1952, Director-General in 1953–59, Deputy Defense Minister in 1959–65, and Defense Minister in 1974–77.

⁵⁹ Zur was Israel’s Defense Forces’ Deputy Chief of Staff in 1958–60, Chief of Staff in 1961–63 and the Defense Minister’s advisor in 1967–74.

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⁸² SIPRI Arms Transfers Database at: {www.sipri.org/databases/armstransfers/}.

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¹⁰⁵ Patrick Seale, Asad: The Struggle for the Middle East (Berkeley: California UP, 1989), 382.

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¹⁵⁷ McWilliams, Armscor, 2.

¹⁵⁸ Steve Camp and Helmoed-Römer Heitman, Surviving the Ride (Pinetown: 30° South, 2014), 19–96.

¹⁵⁹ Ibid, 166–72.

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¹⁶⁴ White Paper on the South African Defence Related Industries (Pretoria: South African Government, 1999).

¹⁶⁵ Batchelor and Willett, Disarmament and Defence Industrial, 177–81.

¹⁶⁶ Henk, South Africa’s Armaments Industry, 65–89.

¹⁶⁷ Yezid Sayigh, Arab Military Industry: Capability, Performance and Impact (London: Brassey’s, 1992), 106–07.

¹⁶⁸ Ibid, 104.

¹⁶⁹ Anthony Cordesman and Abraham Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War: The Iran–Iraq War (Westview: Boulder, 1990), 423–529.

¹⁷⁰ Kevin Woods et al. (eds.), The Saddam Tapes: The Inner Workings of a Tyrant’s Regime (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2011), 141–46.

¹⁷¹ Ibid, 49–53.

¹⁷² Hoyt, 140.

¹⁷³ Herbert Krosney, Deadly Business: The Arming of Iran and Iraq (New York: Four Walls, 1993), 41–73.

¹⁷⁴ Kenneth Timmerman, The Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq (London: 4^th Estate, 1992), 142–60.

¹⁷⁵ Ibid, 287–89.

¹⁷⁶ Hoyt, 135.

¹⁷⁷ Ibid, 131–36.

¹⁷⁸ Fernando Sanchez and Jesus Huelamo, Iraqi Tank T-55 ‘Enigma’ (Alicante: Hobbyworld, n.d.).

¹⁷⁹ Sayigh, 114–21.

¹⁸⁰ Hoyt, 139.

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Marc R. DeVore

Marc R. DeVore is a Lecturer at the University of St. Andrews’ School of International Relations. Dr. DeVore also served as National Security Advisor to the President of the Central African Republic and an advisor to the President of Guniea-Bissau. He has published in the Review of International Political Economy, Security Studies, New Political Economy, Journal of Strategic Studies, Defence and Peace Economics, War in History, War in History, Comparative Strategy and Terrorism and Political Violence. He has conducted field research in the Balkans, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon and the Central African Republic.