Civil Reconstructions of Military Technology: The United States and Russia

With the end of the Cold War, the relationship between military and civil technologies is being radically restructured. In the USA, the new paradigm is `dual-use', replacing `spinoff' as the main understanding of the relationship between military and civil technologies. A consequence is the re-integration of the industrial technological base of the military and the civilian sectors, and a complete redefinition of the task of the military industries and their role in technological development. Key concepts here are critical technologies, technology assessment, prototyping and flexible production. In Russia, because of the lack of strong civil actors in the vacuum succeeding the collapse of the Soviet Union, a different development track is emerging. As few examples exist of Western joint ventures, and since conversion is facing both financial and organizational barriers, the conversion problem has been reformulated. The main focus is no longer on conversion of military facilities and know-how for civilian uses. The emerging paradigm implies export of weapons inter alia, to finance conversion. However, such military exports are now justified with reference to commercial concerns. The task is to integrate Russia within the world economy and to gain access to foreign currency. This article sees these reconstructions of military technology in a theoretical perspective, as a result of which a new research agenda for peace studies emerges.