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Countries establish defence industries for various reasons. Chief
among these are usually a concern with national security, and a
desire to be as independent as possible in the supply of the
armaments which they believe they need. But defence industries are
different from most other industries. Their customer is
governments. Their product is intended to safeguard the most vital
interests of the state. The effectiveness of these products (in the
real, rather than the experimental sense) is not normally tested at
the time of purchase. If, or when, it is tested, many other factors
(such as the quality of political and military leadership) enter
into the equation, so complicating judgments about the quality of
the armaments, and about the reliability of the promises made by
the manufacturers. All of these features make the defence sector an
unusually political industrial sector. This has been true in both
the command economies of the former Soviet Union and its
satellites, and in the market or mixed economies of the west. In
both cases, to speak only a little over-generally, the defence
sector has been particularly privileged and particularly protected
from the usual economic vicissitudes. In both cases, too, its
centrality to the perceived vital interests of the state has given
it an unusual degree of political access and support.
Countries establish defence industries for various reasons. Chief
among these are usually a concern with national security, and a
desire to be as independent as possible in the supply of the
armaments which they believe they need. But defence industries are
different from most other industries. Their customer is
governments. Their product is intended to safeguard the most vital
interests of the state. The effectiveness of these products (in the
real, rather than the experimental sense) is not normally tested at
the time of purchase. If, or when, it is tested, many other factors
(such as the quality of political and military leadership) enter
into the equation, so complicating judgments about the quality of
the armaments, and about the reliability of the promises made by
the manufacturers. All of these features make the defence sector an
unusually political industrial sector. This has been true in both
the command economies of the former Soviet Union and its
satellites, and in the market or mixed economies of the west. In
both cases, to speak only a little over-generally, the defence
sector has been particularly privileged and particularly protected
from the usual economic vicissitudes. In both cases, too, its
centrality to the perceived vital interests of the state has given
it an unusual degree of political access and support.
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This
IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced
typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have
occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor
pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original
artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe
this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections,
have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing
commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We
appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the
preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
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