An In-Depth Analysis of Military Industrial Complex

It has been observed with the passage of time that the military industry has been progressing in terms of their technology as well as their capabilities of production. According to the study it has been observed that in postmodern era, military production plays an important role to strengthen the economic position of the country. Therefore, the strongest economies have been investing their resources in military production. However, the concept of demand and supply do exist in this case as well. In the light of the study it has been found that it is quite necessary for the production companies to have demand of their product in the market. Moreover, it has also been studied that the demand of the military equipment from the international countries provides an opportunity for the country to earn more revenues or it has also been observed that there are the examples in which the countries have trade their technologies against military productions. Furthermore, it has also been studied that the concept of military-industrial complex was first started from United States of America from 1960’s, when the U.S president in his speech enlighten the rising issue and later the country has been observed as the largest exporter of military equipment.

Literature Review on the Topic

It has been observed that the term military-industrial complex was first ever used by the president of USA in 1960’s when he stated that the growing economies in near future will be trading for war. This phenomenon includes higher influence of political and social factors as it is necessary for the country which has been producing the military equipment to have a consumer of these equipment in the global market. According to the study which has been conducted by Geetanjali, it has been observed that there are number of professionals who have their own conflict of interest in the situation of war such as military soldiers, managers and owners of the industries producing military equipment. Businessmen and the professionals who are able to take advantage of the legislations regarding the military decision as it has been observed that many countries believe that their defence budget should not be questionable therefore, the market of military industrial is quite charming. In addition of it, it has also been found that the general rules of the verifying the need for the approval of the requested budget for any project are also inapplicable in most of the countries when it comes to their military expenses.

It has been observed that the concept of military industrial complex was nurtured at the time of WWII when various countries started purchasing the military equipment and related goods that can be used in war and post-war situation of the country. It was the time when the demand of military equipment and related items raised, therefore the business of theses equipment was escalated. Furthermore, it has been observed that after the WWII, the countries who bear the burden of losses were left with their industries which barely survived for several years. However, the industries of USA got their position strong in this scenario and they continued their progress in this industry and started investing to create a demand for their equipment on regular basis. After the WWII, most of the countries were unable to develop their industries to produce military equipment at their own, however, at the same the concept was developed that the WWIII will be of the scale that the whole world will be affected. In the light of the study which was conducted by Carchedi, it has been observed that strong economies after the WWII, started purchasing of the military equipment so that they would be considered as a strong nation among the rest of countries. It has been observed that this perception of strengthening their military among the strong economies created a situation in which the military industries earned remarkable profits.

According to the study that has been conducted by Gressel, it has been observed that the Russian president, Vladmir Putin in 2012 announced the Rearmament plan for Russia. Before the announcement of Russian rearmament, military expense of the Russia was $70.2 billion in 2011, which were raised in 2013 that the figure became $84.4 billion. The amount of the military expenses in Russia continue raising that it became $91.7 billion in 2014. However, it has been observed that, Russia invaded Ukraine and the relationships of Russia with other European countries became affected and they had to face some of the loses such as energy prices and others over their economy. Furthermore, it has also been observed that after the invasion of Russia over Ukraine resulted as various sanctions over Russia in terms of trade of goods and technologies. These sanctions over the country affected the economic situation of the country in a negative manner. Moreover, the country did not stop their investment in the military expenses and continue raising their budget for military expenses even after the sanctions of trade. In the case of Russia, it has been observed that they have trained their 170,000 men ready for disposal of any emergency. Therefore, in such a scenario where 1,70,000 men are always ready for war, counter terrorism activities, natural and manmade disasters, it is important to keep it under consideration that such large number of troops need their expenses should be beard by the country.

According to the study that has been conducted by Chen and Yu, it has been observed that in China, there are more than 15,000 enterprises that has been related to the military production. These enterprises have been producing the military equipment for the country as well as they have been exporting the military equipment for rest of the world, as it has been observed that the cost of Chinese military product is quite lower than the cost of US military product. Therefore, the weaker economies have been purchasing the Chinese military equipment to fulfil the need of their military. Moreover, it has been observed that among the 15,000 enterprises of China, 95 % of the companies are small and medium sized companies and they have been producing the military tactical items such as boots, jackets, gadgets and other goods. However, rets of the 5% enterprises are producing the goods that have higher demand in the market such as weapons and these items have been contributing the 75% revenue of the total military industrial revenue of the country.

In the case of US budget for their military it has been observed that the amount they have been allocating for their military has been fluctuating during past decades after the WWII. In the year of 1948, the country had invested the total amount of $97 billion over their military and the sudden rose was observed in 1952, when USA was in war with Korea, and they allocated the amount of $444.5 billion for their military expenses. However, after the end of this war when the situation of the country was stable, they decreased their military budget up to $216.2 billion. Furthermore, it has been studied that, USA has been actively taking part in war from various countries all over the world as they have been rewarded with the name of super power of the world. Later, in 2010, the military budget of the country was raised up to $756.3 billion while they were in the state of war with Afghanistan and Iran. This was the time when USA has been investing a huge amount for their NATO supplies through Pakistan which is the neighbouring country of Iran and Afghanistan. Furthermore, in 2015 they again decreased their military budget and it became $501.8 billion.

In the light of the study which has been conducted by Ross, it has been observed that there are various elements which affect the decision of war for any country and they play the influential role for the matter. As it has been observed that there are the benefits of war for the industries which have been producing the military equipment and related goods. There are the soldiers and military personnel whose interest has also been influencing the decision of war from the elected governments of any country. Reason behind the interest of the military personnel towards the war is the increased military budget as well as the chances of corruption for the people who have been seeking the opportunity to make money through it. Another study has been observed that there are number of examples all over the world in which military personnel have been found guilty for being a part pf corruption in the procurement process of military item as well as misuse of these equipment and military budget.

In addition of the business men community and military personnel, it has also been studied that there are the politicians in any country who also play an important role in the decision making process of the country for any war. As it has been observed that the politicians of any country have the power to mould the thought process of their followers. Therefore in such a scenario where the businessmen wants to create a demand for their equipment have been using the military personnel and the politicians in parallel to create the scenarios where the general public start asking for the war. Moreover, the media of the country puts the last nail in the coffin by spreading the element of hatred towards the opponent country in a way that the public got emotionally engineered and they start asking their leaders and military to announce war with their opponent country. Analysing the process of creating demand for the military equipment and keeping the element of military industrial complexity alive, it has been observed that the politicians of any country have been seeking for the issue which can be politicize to support the idea of war. In the case of western countries, hatred towards Islam, on the other hand racism in African countries and the issue of Kashmir between India and Pakistan are the example of the issues which can be playing a significant role to call emergency for the country.

Conclusion

Analysing the demand process of the military equipment all over the world and the introduction of the concept of military industrialization complexity, fluctuation of the military budget of various countries, it has been concluded that the military consumption all over the world is one of the best business. As it has analysed while reviewing the related literature for the study, that the allocation of military budget is always higher than the allocation of budget for any other ministry for the country which has been investing their resources to strengthen their forces. Therefore, in such a scenario, the country becomes an important market for the country, and they start planning to keep the demand of the military equipment higher from the country. The process of creating demand form the country for military equipment depends on three professionals, initiated by industrialists of military equipment, politician and the soldier of the country, then there is another element which exist in this scenario is that the soldiers who have been involved in corruption. By the time, when the country has been increasing their military budget the situation becomes suitable for corruption as it has been observed that most of the countries have the policy to keep the financial statements and budget utilisation of their military forces confidential. In such a scenario accountability and the audit process of the country become impossible. Furthermore, it has also been studied that countries even after they had to face sanctions do not step back from war and they keep on investing for their military expenses. However, this lead their economies to become weaker and they had to face different kind of financial and economic constraints due to these sanction as their trades become frozen but the concept of war once influenced, it can not be removed.

Reference List

• Gressel, G., 2015. Russia's Quiet Military Revolution, and What It Means for Europe. European Council on Foreign Relations.
• Chen, G. and Yu, M., 2017. China’s Joint Military and Civilian Development. East Asian Policy, 9(02), pp.26-33.
• Byrne, E., 2017. Military-Industrial Complex.
• Hiltzik, M., 2016. Big science: Ernest Lawrence and the invention that launched the military-industrial complex. Simon and Schuster.
• Bernstein, F., DeCroix, G. and Keskin, N.B., 2018. Competition between two-sided platforms under demand and supply congestion effects. Available at SSRN 3250224.
• Terziev, V., 2018. Realities of implementing the social adaptation process of military personnel, discharged form service in Bulgaria. IJASOS-International E-Journal of Advances in Social Sciences, 4(12).
• Geetanjali, G., Chesnutt, J., Mancini, M., Horak, F. and King, L.A., 2019. Corrigendum: Inertial sensor-based assessment of central sensory integration for balance after mild traumatic brain injury (Military Medicine (2018) 183: Supplement 1 (327-332. Military medicine, 184(1-2).
• Carchedi, G., 2018. The Horizon 2020 European defence research program and the economic consequences of military R&D. In The Emergence of EU Defense Research Policy (pp. 45-56). Springer, Cham.
• Ross, R.J., 2016. After the Cold War: Domestic Factors and US-China Relations: Domestic Factors and US-China Relations. Routledge.
• Li, X., 2017. Cronyism and military corruption in the post-Deng Xiaoping era: Rethinking the party-commands-the-gun model. Journal of Contemporary China, 26(107), pp.696-710.
• Sobczyński, E. and Pietruszka, J., 2018. Military aeronautical charts in the past and today. Polish Cartographical Review, 1(ahead-of-print).
• Mulvenon, J.C., 2016. Soldiers of Fortune: The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Military-Business Complex, 1978-1998: The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Military-Business Complex, 1978-1998. Routledge.