Defense Industries (Military History)

Introduction

The improvements in the industrialization of weapons and equipment production have altered the way wars have been fought throughout history. Those nations that adopted better processes and were able to better equip their militaries often had the advantage on the battlefield. From the first mass production of bows and arrows, to the Industrial Revolution, to the creation of the modern-day military–industrial complex, the innovations in the ability to produce new technologies have caused a drastic increase in the number of casualties during wartime. One of the first examples of this was the American Civil War, where the industrial capabilities of the North and its ability to exploit key weapons, such as the breech-loading rifle, gave it a distinct advantage over the Confederate South. The creation of new weapons, such as the Gatling gun, offered a prescient look into the future of modern warfare. The developments in artillery and rifles were watched closely by the general staffs in Europe, especially Prussia, which embraced technological innovations and began to implement them in the field against its enemies, in its defeat first of Austria in 1866 and then France in 1870–1871. Innovations continued as the machine gun entered service near the end of the 1800s and was used in the Boer War to great effectiveness. It was also used in the Russo–Japanese War of 1905. Unfortunately, those who analyzed this conflict came to the wrong conclusions regarding the weapon. The Japanese victories over the machine gun–equipped Russian army led strategists to mistakenly believe that a soldier’s superior morale could defeat technological superiority. Unfortunately, it was not yet clear that if these technologies, such as the machine gun and artillery, were mass produced through effective industrial adaptation and blanketed the battlefield, no amount of human flesh could overcome them. France learned this lesson in 1914 and nearly lost an entire generation to the new ways of war, defined by mass machine gun and artillery use. But the French were not alone. All nations were confronted with a new type of war, and power began to be measured in how efficient a nation’s defense industrial capability had become. World War II only reinforced this reality. It can easily be argued that the Allies won based largely on the industrial production of the United States. It certainly led to the total defeat—and near destruction—of Japan. Although the atomic and subsequent nuclear arms industries have been central to nations’ investments in their military, this article focuses purely on conventional arms and their respective industries. The focus is on the Western industrial powers such as those in Europe and North America, but Russia and Asia, as well as the Third World, are also addressed.

General Overviews

Few works attempt the overwhelming task of looking at defense industries as a whole, but Todd 1988 can provide solid information for the beginning student. See Hall 1997 for a more technological overview.

Hall, Bert S. Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe: Gunpowder, Technology, and Tactics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
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Combines technical analysis of how weapons changed over time, with chapters relating technological changes to developments in the conduct of war, particularly on the battlefield. Especially good on the chemistry and physics of gunpowder and gunpowder weapons.
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Todd, Daniel. Defence Industries: A Global Perspective. London: Routledge, 1988.
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A highly detailed classification, including considerable tabular material, on the world’s defense industries and the companies that contribute to the international defense market. The work is both historical and comparative and includes an assessment of international defense spending policies of developed and developing nations.
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Reference Works

To understand the industrialization of warfare, it is important to acknowledge the innovations in military technology that made mass production desirable. Jeremy Black published many books on the subject, including Black 2007, and Addington 1994 is also an effective overview for any undergraduate or graduate looking to learn about the technological changes that have occurred on the battlefield since the 18th century. Boot 2006 is good follow-up reading to understand further the evolving technology of war.

Addington, Larry H. The Patterns of War Since the Eighteenth Century. 2d ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
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An excellent textbook to explain the developments of weapons and how they changed national strategies and tactics for all military services—armies, navies, and eventually air forces. Follows dynastic to national warfare and includes everything up to Operation Desert Storm against Iraq.
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Black, Jeremy. European Warfare in a Global Context, 1660–1815. New York: Routledge, 2007.
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Although this book presents a global approach to 18th-century warfare and its emphasis is on the specific conflicts in the period, it also reveals the changing nature of war and the focus on using the Industrial Revolution to create advantages in the field.
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Boot, Max. War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today. New York: Gotham, 2006.
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Boot describes how military innovation has consistently redrawn state borders. Those nations that have mastered the application of the Industrial Revolution to war have also been able to extend their reach and conquer new lands. Useful as a historical overview for military technology.
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Intelligence Resources

The modern global defense industry is the source of hundreds of billions of dollars in investment every year, and several resources exist to track what certain countries and companies are doing. Subscriptions to these resources are very expensive and are usually purchased through a large corporate investment. Two that focus on weapons and equipment production and acquisition as their mandate are IHS Janes Defense & Security Intelligence & Analysis and Strategic Defence Intelligence. Both are intended mostly for corporate employees.

IHS Janes Defense & Security Intelligence & Analysis.
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Although IHS has published print editions, most of its information is now available online by subscription and includes comprehensive data on international defense projects, both planned and under way.
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Strategic Defence Intelligence.
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Based in the United Kingdom, this service offers analysis of all major equipment programs currently going on, gives analysis of international markets, and provides insight into national defense industry trends.
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National Procurement Systems

Every nation that has an industrial capacity to produce defense materials also has a formalized system under which their government can purchase weapons and equipment from it. This is usually called a procurement or acquisition system, and these programs are often created by governments to protect against profiteering and ensure that the state gets value for its investment. Plamondon 2010 and McNaugher 1989 are the most comprehensive analyses of such systems in Canada and the United States, respectively.

McNaugher, Thomas L. New Weapons, Old Politics: America’s Military Procurement Muddle. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1989.
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McNaugher argues that the American procurement system is characterized by excess and fraud. He offers an in-depth look at the how technical, military, and political aspects all affect how America acquires its weapons and equipment.
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Plamondon, Aaron. The Politics of Procurement: Military Acquisition in Canada and the Sea King Helicopter. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2010.
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In-depth study on Canada’s civil-military relationship regarding their defense industry and acquisition. Offering an historical overview of procurement in Canada since Confederation, the book uses the longest-running procurement in Canada to demonstrate weaknesses in the system due to a focus on political considerations over actual military capability. Useful for both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
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Early Modern Period

This period, most commonly understood as 1500–1800, saw the beginning of the industrialization of warfare. The ability of a nation to produce new and advanced weaponry on a mass scale forced all countries to either keep up with their potential enemies in regard to the investment in a defense industrial base or risk being defeated on the battlefield. West 1991 and McNeill 1989 cover the essential period of gunpowder and early gun warfare, and Grant 2007, Cipolla 1965, and Ágoston 2005 provide students with the necessary context for how these innovations allowed for the expansion of empires.

Ágoston, Gábor. Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
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An examination of the weapons technology and armaments industries of the Ottoman Empire. Explains how the Islamic empire threatened Europe on its own territory. Based on extensive research in the Turkish archives, the book delivers insight into Ottoman self-sufficiency in weapons and arms production.
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Cipolla, Carlo M. Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion 1400–1700. New York: Minerva, 1965.
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Cipolla’s simple thesis is that after the end of the 15th century, Europeans were able to force their way through to the distant Spice Islands and gain control of all the major sea routes and to establish overseas empires because of their ability to build more capable ships and cannon than their Eastern competition.
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Grant, Jonathan A. Rulers, Guns, and Money: The Global Arms Trade in the Age of Imperialism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
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The explosion of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of imperialism in the second half of the 19th century served to dramatically increase the supply of and demand for weapons on a global scale. Arms manufacturers in industrialized nations began to seek markets beyond their own borders to further economic interests. Offers good critical arguments.
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McNeill, William H. The Age of Gunpowder Empires, 1450–1800. Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1989.
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McNeill describes how the advent of guns changed the global balance of power and allowed European powers to build empires through the exploitation of military technology and development. The book takes the general reader through the many innovations in guns and artillery that affected the organization, training, and supply of modern armies.
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West, Jenny. Gunpowder, Government and War in the Mid-Eighteenth Century. London: Royal Historical Society, 1991.
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Describes the first gunpowder producers in England and the transition from independent contractors to those administered by the state in the late 18th century. This comprehensive history takes the reader through the functions of the British Ordnance Office and explains how the British armed their military services in war and peace. Well researched and professionally sourced.
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19th Century

The middle of the 19th century was one of the first dynamic periods in global industrial development. The new means to manipulate iron and steel were immediately used for military purposes, seen most prominently in the rise of shipbuilding, rifles, and railroads. The growth of the American defense industry is a good place to start, with Hess 2008, Farley 1994, Keller 2008, and Smith 1977; from there the study of the vital creation of a German military industrial power in the Krupp family can begin with Manchester 1968, and the broader context is provided in Brose 2001. Showalter 1975 provides a highly readable and useful text for a full understanding of how the appropriate use of railroads and rifles in Prussia unified modern-day Germany. Case studies of China and Canada are covered with Kennedy 1978 and The Dominion Arsenal at Quebec, which is a government study with no attributed author.

Brose, Eric Dorn. The Kaiser’s Army: The Politics of Military Technology in Germany during the Machine Age, 1870–1918. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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The dichotomy between those who embraced technology within the German military and those who rejected it is traced, with the book arguing that this dichotomy led to Germany’s ultimate defeat in the Great War. Brose explains clearly that technology is useful only in the hands of those who embrace its full potential, especially on the battlefield.
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The Dominion Arsenal at Quebec, 1880–1945. Quebec: National government, 1947.
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The government of Canada established one of the oldest federal arsenals in North America in Quebec in 1879. This signaled an early desire to create a domestic capability to provide the necessary munitions for the defense of the new nation. After 1870, British troops returned home and the Canadian government was forced to create its own militia and the means to arm it.
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Farley, James J. Making Arms in the Machine Age: Philadelphia’s Frankford Arsenal, 1816–1870. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994.
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The arsenal evolved from a small post where skilled workers hand-produced small-arms ammunition to a full-scale industrial complex employing a large civilian workforce. Farley uses the history of the arsenal to examine larger issues, including the changing technology of early-19th-century warfare and the reactions of workers and their families to the coming of industrialization.
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Hess, Earl J. The Rifle Musket in Civil War Combat: Reality and Myth. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008.
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The American Civil War was the only major conflict in which both sides were fully armed with the rifle musket. As Hess explains, however, mass-produced breech-loading rifles superseded that weapon soon thereafter with Prussia’s defeat of France in 1871, and Hess dismisses the idea that the production and use of the rifle musket revolutionized warfare.
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Keller, Julia. Mr. Gatling’s Terrible Marvel: The Gun That Changed Everything and the Misunderstood Genius Who Invented It. New York: Viking, 2008.
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Keller, a Pulitzer Prize winner, offers a detailed account of how the United States used the machine gun to aid in its quest to be a global power by enabling it to protect its overseas interests. Devotes an equal amount of time to the inventor himself—Richard Gatling.
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Kennedy, Thomas L. The Arms of Kiangnan: Modernization in the Chinese Ordnance Industry, 1860–1895. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1978.
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A highly specialized study on the attempts of China to modernize its national defense capabilities through industrial development. The study focuses on China’s first major arsenal at Kiangnan, its struggles to build modern guns and cannon, and its ultimate failure to adequately protect itself due to a lack of resources and infrastructure leading into the Sino–Japanese War of 1895.
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Manchester, William. The Arms of Krupp, 1587–1968. Boston: Little, Brown, 1968.
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After the start of the Thirty Years War, the firearms trade prospered, and Anton Krupp was one of the first to engage in the industry of war. The Krupp family became an industrial dynasty and developed some of the world’s most technologically advanced weapons, from artillery to submarines.
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Showalter, Dennis E. Railroads and Rifles: Soldiers, Technology, and the Unification of Germany. Hamden, CT: Archon, 1975.
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An excellent monograph, useful for all levels, describing the impact of industrial progress on Prussia’s ability to wage war. Its successes against Austria in 1866 and France in 1871 ultimately led to the unification of Germany.
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Smith, Merritt Roe. Harpers Ferry Armory and the New Technology: The Challenge of Change. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977.
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This historical presentation illustrates the anxieties and misgivings that attended the rise of large-scale manufacturing in the early 19th century. As Smith notes, the story of the armory at Harpers Ferry shows a classic example of a people trying to maintain their accustomed lifestyle in the wake of technological advancement.
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20th Century

The internal combustion engine and the use of the industrial assembly line continued to affect the equipping of national defense forces as the world was drawn into its largest international conflicts. Before this time, using warfare was a completely acceptable means, often of last resort, to make an opposing nation yield to your will. After World War I, it was realized that technology had made war far more expensive in blood and treasure. This was seen again during World War II, and although it reinforced the belief that global warfare should be averted at all costs, nations built up arsenals larger than the world had ever seen in order to deter potential enemies.

World War I

The technology of World War I changed how wars were fought. With the introduction of the machine gun on a mass scale, soldiers could no longer approach the opposing lines of the enemy without suffering massive casualties. As a response, whole armies dug into the ground, and trench warfare resulted in a new wave of weapons such as mortars, grenades, flame throwers, mass artillery, gas, and finally the tank. This war also saw the advent of aircraft on the battlefield and the creation of the largest battleships in history. Adams 1978 is key to understanding the early industrial production of essential munitions and the problems inherent in them, while Woollacott 1994 provides a social history of the entry of women into the munitions factories. MacLeod and Johnson 2006 provides a case study of one of the new industrial facets of this war. Dreisziger 1981 is useful as a comparison analysis, and Parkinson 2008 provides the context of the naval arms race that many argued eventually led to war. The tank was one of the most influential innovations of the century and is covered simply by Humble 1977.

Adams, R. J. Q. Arms and the Wizard: Lloyd George and the Ministry of Munitions, 1915–1916. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1978.
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A brief account of the administration of the British Ministry of Munitions during World War I and a good biographical account of Lloyd George, the prime minister during this time. The book also provides a good account of how other military technologies came into being, such as the tank and the Stokes mortar.
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Dreisziger, N. F., ed. Mobilization for Total War: The Canadian, American and British Experience 1914–1918, 1939–1945. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1981.
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A compilation of essays by a team of respected academics on the consequences of organizing a society for total war. Topics include the mobilization of British–American finance to fund industrial development and the strains placed on a society attempting to transform a peacetime industry to one focused on war.
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Humble, Richard. Tanks. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977.
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A basic discussion that demonstrates how modern industrial developments took the ideas of early Leonardo da Vinci and made them a reality on the battlefield. This book is replete with pictures and sketches and covers the international developments in armored warfare up to the 1970s. For the casual inquirer.
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MacLeod, Roy, and Jeffrey Allan Johnson, eds. Frontline and Factory: Comparative Perspectives on the Chemical Industry at War, 1914–1924. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 2006.
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By 1916, success in applying scientific knowledge in the factory became a measure of a nation’s capacity to win an industrial war. In the end, the conflict was won in large part through the command of raw materials and industrial output. This book represents a first attempt to study the factors that conditioned industrial chemistry for war in 1914–1918.
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Parkinson, Roger. The Late Victorian Navy: The Pre-Dreadnought Era and the Origins of the First World War. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2008.
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Although the book’s timeline begins in the Victorian era, it is relevant here because of its relationship to the cause of World War I. The creation of the Dreadnought battleship and the naval arms race that it spurred between Britain and Germany are part of the larger discussion of industrial militarism as a primary cause of World War I.
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Woollacott, Angela. On Her Their Lives Depend: Munitions Workers in the Great War. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
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Woollacott explores how, although women gained a degree of independence and financial security during the war like they never had before, they still had to struggle with their continued inequality in society, reflected in their treatment by male workers and their lower pay than men. Mobility did exist, however, and the author explains how female factory workers challenged these social norms during wartime.
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The Interwar Period

There were many innovations during the interwar period as governments went from demobilization to a renewed commitment to their respective arms industries based on the threat posed by Nazi Germany. Murray and Millett 1996 offers an overview of innovations in general and provides the context for what each nation was investing in and producing. The Soviet Union eventually became an industrial power during the war and is covered from the beginning of Stalin’s regime in Harrison 2008. Habeck 2003 goes into depth on Soviet armor production, which includes a unique comparison to Germany; the enormous levels of investment necessary in such a large nation are revealed in Dunn 1995. Larson 1984 covers the British experience and demonstrates the complexities of adopting a new military platform. A simple, yet visual, coverage of aircraft is provided by Murphy and McNiece 2009 and shows how far this platform has come since World War I.

Dunn, Walter S., Jr. The Soviet Economy and the Red Army, 1930–1945. Westport CT: Praeger, 1995.
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This work describes how the Soviet Union struggled to equip its massive army, transforming it from being drastically underequipped into a force capable of defeating the German army. A focused account not for the casual reader.
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Habeck, Mary R. Storm of Steel: The Development of Armor Doctrine in Germany and the Soviet Union, 1919–1939. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003.
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To carry out what Habeck calls the only truly original armor doctrines before World War II, Germany and the Soviet Union had to have industrial support to create the necessary tanks for training and implementation. Good account of actual tanks involved. The well-versed reader will notice a focus on similarities rather than the usual differences.
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Harrison, Mark, ed. Guns and Rubles: The Defense Industry in the Stalinist State. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
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This collection of articles includes a reputable team of historians and economists who have gained access to Soviet archives to analyze how Stalin prepared his nation for war. This book reveals new information on the highly secretive defense industry of the Stalinist era and how it affected the Soviet economy and military planning. Undergraduate and graduate level.
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Larson, Robert H. The British Army and the Theory of Armored Warfare, 1918–1940. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1984.
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Although Britain had invented the tank and used it to defeat Germany in World War I, the British did not capitalize on this invention during the postwar years, allowing Germany to gain armored superiority in Europe. As Larson explains, this was due to an inability on the part of the British to change their basic strategic doctrines, which would have been required to maximize the new weapon of war. Undergraduate and graduate level.
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Murphy, Justin D., and Mathew A. McNiece. Military Aircraft, 1919–1945: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2009.
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As with the rest of this ABC-CLIO collection, it is helpful to the reader to have such a surplus of photographs about the topic. This work does include a substantial study of the aircraft policies and strategies, but its real value is to the general reader looking to understand the aircraft that were built during this time.
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Murray, Williamson, and Allan R. Millett, eds. Military Innovation in the Interwar Period. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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Military developments in the 1920s and 1930s, such as heavy bombers, aircraft carriers, and submarine technology, are explored in the context of the seven world powers pursuing them. This book takes the sophisticated reader through why some succeeded where others failed.
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World War II

As with World War I, defense industries across the globe were mobilized for war. The new, yet largely ineffective, technology of the Nazi V1 and V2 rockets is covered in Petersen 2009 and Neufeld 1995, and is contrasted with one of the industrial success stories of the war—the Soviet T-34 tank—in Drabkin and Sheremet 2006. Barber and Harrison 2000 provides a collection of essays for a more inclusive look at Soviet industrial development. Another success story, although small relative to larger nations such as the Soviet Union, is Canada’s contribution, detailed in Granatstein 2005.

Barber, John, and Mark Harrison, eds. The Soviet Defence-Industry Complex from Stalin to Khrushchev. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.
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Using vast amounts of primary material, the authors have expertly covered the political, social, and economic aspects of the Soviet defense industry in the 1920s and 1930s. Reveals how the military influenced the five-year plans to prepare for war as early as 1927 and eventually prevailed over Germany due to its lack of artisanal production.
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Drabkin, Artem, and Oleg Sheremet. Translated by Dmitri Kovalelevich, Bair Irincheev, and Vladimir Karin. T-34 in Action. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword Military, 2006.
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The Soviet T-34 medium tank was one of the most famous and effective fighting vehicles of World War II. Along with the German Tiger and the American Sherman, it was a milestone in tank design that changed the course of the conflict and is a testament to Soviet defense industrial production during the war.
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Granatstein, J. L. Arming the Nation: Canada’s Industrial War Effort, 1939–1945. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Council of Chief Executives, 2005.
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Granatstein heaps praise on the Canadian defense industry for producing more than its military needed in order to support the broader war effort through sale and gift. This effort, according to Granatstein, also allowed for economic prosperity in the postwar period.
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Neufeld, Michael J. The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. New York: Free Press, 1995.
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The story of how Karl Becker helped usher in the era of the rocket, believing that its true utility would be as a psychological weapon. Good overall history of rocket research and development in Germany with the valid conclusion that it had a limited effect on the war overall.
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Petersen, Michael B. Missiles for the Fatherland: Peenemünde, National Socialism, and the V-2 Missile. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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This history revolves around the V-2 missile and the scientists, engineers, and industry that created it. This is a social history of the creation of a military capability and includes oral primary-source interviews to provide a cultural and societal commentary. Also included is a discussion on the use of slave labor to mass-produce the rocket.
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Cold War

The Cold War context provides one of the most intense examples of military investment. US President Dwight D. Eisenhower offered a thoughtful warning as he left office on the influence of the defense industry, and this is covered in many books, which include Pierre 1982, Sarkesian 1972, Cuff 1978, and Kaufman 1970. Although investment was mostly led by the United States during this time, Kaldor 1981 makes the case that this was at times misdirected. How international defense trade has affected the Third World is illustrated in Stockholm International Peace Research Institute 1971. Stewart 1988 provides a unique Canadian study on one of the first jet aircraft and shows that not all nations were willing to pay the price of creating an independent and viable defense industry.

Cuff, Robert D. “An Organizational Perspective on the Military-Industrial Complex.” Business History Review 52.2 (1978): 250–267.
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A valuable source on the literature on the military–industrial complex itself and how the connection between business, government, and defense has been portrayed in the historiography. Good analysis of the administrative structures needed to prepare for war industrially. Complex argument for the graduate level.
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Kaldor, Mary. The Baroque Arsenal. New York: Hill & Wang, 1981.
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The focus of this book is the military industrial development of the United States from World War I to the 1990s. Kaldor argues that, although the development of weapons and equipment for World War I and World War II stimulated American industry as a whole, in the post–World War II era, this continued focus on arms failed to assist commercial industry owing to its technological specialization.
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Kaufman, Richard F. The War Profiteers. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970.
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Kaufman provides a condemnation of the military–industrial complex first described by Eisenhower and concludes that the Vietnam War was extended because it was in the economic interests of many with influence in the United States. An aggressive description of the procurement system as corrupt and immoral.
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Pierre, Andrew J. The Global Politics of Arms Sales. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982.
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Pierre has written this book in the context in which arms sales, and the national industries that produce them, have become a crucial dimension of international relations. The increases in sales to both developed and developing countries by the major suppliers—the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France—are analyzed alongside the new producers, such as Israel, South Africa, and Brazil.
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Sarkesian, Sam C., ed. The Military Industrial Complex: A Reassessment. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE, 1972.
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A collection of essays that attempts to define the nature of the military–industrial complex in the United States. All authors reach different conclusions, so it is a good resource for undergraduate students looking to discover what the debates are and to find sources for further study.
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Stewart, Greig. Shutting Down the National Dream: A. V. Roe and the Tragedy of the Avro Arrow. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1988.
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The story of Canada’s attempt at defense industrial independence and the creation of one of the first jet interceptors. Ultimately, this case study demonstrates the difficulties in the development of new military technology due to cost overruns and schedule slips. The Arrow was eventually cancelled, despite being regarded as one of the best aircrafts available.
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Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The Arms Trade with the Third World. Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1971.
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This is a large study, conducted by a handful of researchers at the SIPRI, of almost a thousand pages, with descriptions of the nations that trade defense products with the Third World and the defense industries that produce them. The authors explain that the study of the arms trade is an important means by which the competition between developed countries is extended throughout the world and absorbs local disputes and wars.
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Post–Cold War

The post–Cold War period did not result in global peace, and defense industrial complexes simply broadened their focus to include new nations at war and the Third World. Haglund and MacFarlane 1999 is an edited collection that gives context to any further study. Markusen and Costigan 1999 addresses the reaction of major military firms specifically to this period, and Keller 1995 gives more of a market analysis of the period, while Edgar and Haglund 1995 gives the Canadian perspective.

Edgar, Alistair D., and David G. Haglund, eds. The Canadian Defence Industry in the New Global Environment. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995.
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This book concentrates on the challenges and threats to the Canadian defense industry in the 1990s. The study consists of an examination and assessment of the problems and prospects of the industry given the post–Cold War changes that have transformed the international security environment.
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Haglund, David G., and S. Neil MacFarlane, eds. Security, Strategy, and the Global Economics of Defence Production. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1999.
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This collection revolves around how technological innovations in the arms industries of the world’s leading states have been confronting globalization in the civilian sector. The articles come from a broad range of contributors in Canada and the United Kingdom and assess the complex problems such as the merits of regional defense industrial cooperation as opposed to transatlantic arrangements.
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Keller, William W. Arm in Arm: The Political Economy of the Global Arms Trade. New York: Basic Books, 1995.
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Although the Cold War is over, Keller correctly concludes that the world is still far from peace and that the arms trade remained prevalent in the 1990s. Indeed, the American share in the global arms trade had increased. The book effectively analyzes the implications of the spread of military technology as US companies search for new markets.
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Markusen, Ann R., and Sean S. Costigan, eds. Arming the Future: A Defense Industry for the 21st Century. Washington, DC: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1999.
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This book documents the defense industrial changes of the post–Cold War decade and explains that, as military procurement spending fell in the 1990s, mergers and Pentagon policies altered the defense industry in unexpected ways. Markusen and Costigan analyze how these new policies that encourage dual-use development, civil/military integration, defense conversion, and arms exports have succeeded and failed.
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International Defense Industrial Cooperation

As a result of the changing security environment of the post–Cold War period, international trade and cooperation of defense industries became prominent. The new roles of NATO in regard to this topic are seen in Anthony 1990, and Taylor 1982 provides a more specific analysis of actual standardization of this production in the West.

Anthony, Ian. The Naval Arms Trade. Solna, Sweden: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 1990.
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Most importantly for this article, this book describes in detail the collaborative efforts among NATO powers to reduce the cost of complex naval systems in the 1980s and the demand for and dissemination of advanced naval technology. Case studies of these efforts and their respective development of national defense industrial bases include Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and India.
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Taylor, Trevor. Defence, Technology and International Integration. London: Frances Pinter, 1982.
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Although Taylor’s focus is on the general European defense community, this work provides particular insight into the military and economic aspects of standardization of weapons and equipment between allies. The potential for commonality and compatibility is analyzed in the context of the high and often uncertain industrial costs of major defense projects. Graduate level.
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Multiple-Country Perspectives in the Post–Cold War Period

The best way to understand the arms industry as a whole is to study works that make multination comparisons and explain how globalization is affecting cooperation and proliferation. Bitzinger 2003 and Golde and Tishler 2004 provide a good start to the general discussion, while Hoyt 2006 and Katz 1984 are more specific in terms of the nations that are under scrutiny. Drown, et al. 1990 continues the discussion of the post–Cold War period from a multinational perspective, while Ohlson and Brzoska 1986 does so strictly from a Third World perspective.

Bitzinger, Richard A. Towards a Brave New Arms Industry? Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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As most countries have reduced their investments in their defense industries in the post–Cold War era, we have seen a switch from self-sufficiency to a more globalized worldwide defense industry. This has significant implications for the future of armaments production, for proliferation, and for arms control.
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Drown, Jane Davis, Clifford Drown, and Kelly Campbell, eds. A Single European Arms Industry? European Defence Industries in the 1990s. London: Brassey’s, 1990.
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Experienced authors from government and industry assess the impact of the fall of the Soviet Union on the future of the European arms industry and ask the tough question of whether it can remain profitable during peaceful conditions.
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Golde, Saar, and Asher Tishler. “Security Needs, Arms Exports, and the Structure of the Defense Industry.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 48.5 (2004):672–698.
DOI: 10.1177/0022002704267933Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This article explains that strong military powers are countries that have state-of-the-art technological knowledge and the economic means to develop them into sophisticated weapon systems. The immediate post–Cold War era and its political, economic, and social developments meant that only the United States and Western Europe met these criteria. Presents a model for the choice of their defense levels and market structure.
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Hoyt, Timothy D. Military Industry and Regional Defence Policy: India, Iraq, and Israel. New York: Routledge, 2006.
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Looking at Israel, Iraq, and India in the post–Cold War era, Hoyt analyzes and characterizes each player but does not focus on the economic and development costs of their need to produce complete weapons systems, as cooperation can work at a much lower level.
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Katz, James Everett, ed. Arms Production in Developing Countries: An Analysis of Decision Making. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1984.
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This compendium of articles offers a comparative analysis of arms production in Egypt, India, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Pakistan, North and South Korea, the Philippines, China, South Africa, and the former Yugoslavia. The collection explains the causes, circumstances, and consequences of arms development in each nation.
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Ohlson, Thomas, and Michael Brzoska, eds. Arms Production in the Third World. London: Taylor & Francis, 1986.
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An extensive and well-sourced monograph about the defense industries in several Third World countries that includes history, the structure of their arms production, the weapons, their exports, and the impact that they have on their respective economies. Simple descriptions instead of in-depth analysis.
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21st Century

Hambling 2005 and Dombrowski and Gholz 2006 provide insight into how war has driven technological innovation and provides balance to the critique of and skepticism toward private military industry and its negative influence on nation-states in Singer 2003 and Hartung 2011. Bitzinger 2003 provides case studies on how the role of the state affects its defense industrialization.

Bitzinger, Richard A. Towards a Brave New Arms Industry? Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
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As most countries have reduced their investments in their defense industries in the post–Cold War era, there has been a switch from self-sufficiency to a more globalized worldwide defense industry. This has significant implications for the future of armaments production and proliferation. Includes case-study analysis and looks at the role of the state in defense industrialization in Sweden, South Korea, Taiwan, and Brazil.
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Dombrowski, Peter, and Eugene Gholz. Buying Military Transformation: Technological Innovation and the Defense Industry. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
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Through their analysis of the relationships between the military and industry, the authors delve into the areas of information technology and conclude that the existing defense industry is better prepared to lead in this area over commercial entrepreneurs. Technological progress is analyzed in the context of military threats to a nation.
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Hambling, David. Weapons Grade: How Modern Warfare Gave Birth to Our High-Tech World. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005.
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Explains how war has always been a key driver of innovation, from harnessing nuclear power to the creation of the Internet. Hambling is an expert on military technology and discusses how industry and governments interact to produce the weapons and equipment of the future. Extremely readable and general in its content.
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Hartung, William D. Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. New York: Nation, 2011.
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Hartung traces the story of America’s largest defense contractor with a tone of suspicion and claims that the company simply has too much power and influence on what the United States invests in. Provides a good overall history and includes some discussion on the company’s innovations and adaptability, but the focus remains on scandal and bribery.
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Singer, P. W. Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003.
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Singer’s focus is how the profit motive on the battlefield raises a series of troubling questions in regard to democracy, ethics, and human rights. The influence of the privatized military–industrial complex, Singer argues, has extended internationally and explains how the private now threatens the public interest.
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