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This book draws on the ten nation CREDIT (Capacity for Research on
European Defence and Industrial Technology) network which was set
up to tackle issue concerning defence science, technology and
industrial policy, including the implications of the Cold War and a
growing pan-European emphasis. By providing a comparative study of
policy and practice in the countries of western Europe, the book
provides vital insights into how governments and firms can begin to
search for European-wide solutions to the dilemmas that face them.
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 book arises from a meeting held at Wiston House, Sussex, UK,
in September 1987. The meeting brought together academic,
governmental and industrial experts from eight countries to discuss
the increasingly important sUbject of the relations between civil
and defence technologies. It was primarily funded under the
Advanced Research Workshops Programme of NATO's Scientific Affairs
Division, and was the first science policy workshop funded by the
Programme. Additional financial support came from the Leverhulme
Trust. The choice of topic, of speakers and, finally, of papers to
be published was entirely ours. The conclusions reached were our
own and those of the partIcipants. They were not in any way guided
by NATO; nor do they represent NATO policy. We speak for all the
participants in offering our thanks to the NATO SCIentific Affairs
Division, especially Secretary General Durand and Dr. Craig
Sinclair, for rnei r- generosity and encouragement. WIthout them
this book would not exist. We thank the Leverhulme Trust for
enabling assistance to be provided to the Workshop Directors, in
the form of lain Bate, who himself played a major part in the
success of the meeting. The staff of Wiston House must also be
thanked for prOViding an admirable environment for the meeting. For
secretarial support prior to the meeting we thank Gill Miller and
Lesley Price. Finally, we offer special thanks to Mrs. Yvonne
Aspinall for converting all the papers, in whatever state they were
presented, into camera-ready copy with such professionalism and
gOOd humour.
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 book arises from a meeting held at Wiston House, Sussex, UK,
in September 1987. The meeting brought together academic,
governmental and industrial experts from eight countries to discuss
the increasingly important sUbject of the relations between civil
and defence technologies. It was primarily funded under the
Advanced Research Workshops Programme of NATO's Scientific Affairs
Division, and was the first science policy workshop funded by the
Programme. Additional financial support came from the Leverhulme
Trust. The choice of topic, of speakers and, finally, of papers to
be published was entirely ours. The conclusions reached were our
own and those of the partIcipants. They were not in any way guided
by NATO; nor do they represent NATO policy. We speak for all the
participants in offering our thanks to the NATO SCIentific Affairs
Division, especially Secretary General Durand and Dr. Craig
Sinclair, for rnei r- generosity and encouragement. WIthout them
this book would not exist. We thank the Leverhulme Trust for
enabling assistance to be provided to the Workshop Directors, in
the form of lain Bate, who himself played a major part in the
success of the meeting. The staff of Wiston House must also be
thanked for prOViding an admirable environment for the meeting. For
secretarial support prior to the meeting we thank Gill Miller and
Lesley Price. Finally, we offer special thanks to Mrs. Yvonne
Aspinall for converting all the papers, in whatever state they were
presented, into camera-ready copy with such professionalism and
gOOd humour.
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