The political economy of national defense

Book · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:6195529

Weida, W J; Gertcher, F L

This timely study covers both the economic and the political aspects of defense spending-first by providing a theoretical framework and then by explaining, in a political economy context, the results of decisions to allocate scarce resources to defense. The authors provide a comprehensive picture of the interaction between defense spending and the economic and political structure of the United States, complementing their exploration of topical concerns such as SDI with analysis of long-term trends and issues of timeless importance in the defense debate. Because of the politicizing of defense planning and procurement, there have been few significant applications of optimization techniques to high-level defense issues over the past decade. As a result, there has been a rapid decline in the importance of those techniques-historically the focus of books on defense economics. Like its predecessors, this book presents optimization techniques applicable to a wide variety of defense problems, but it also illustrates what happens in actual practice and why defense decisions are often not economically efficient. The authors discuss alternatives for cases when political constraints make efficient solutions unlikely and explore changes in the defense establishment and political structures that would make economically efficient resource allocations a reality.

• OSTI ID: 6195529
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290200 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics & Sociology
290600* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Nuclear Energy
293000 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Policy
Legislation
& Regulation
BALLISTIC MISSILE DEFENSE
BUDGETS
COST
DECISION MAKING
ECONOMIC IMPACT
ECONOMICS
EFFICIENCY
EQUIPMENT
EVALUATION
INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS
MILITARY EQUIPMENT
NATIONAL DEFENSE
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
POLITICAL ASPECTS
PRODUCTION
WEAPONS