scholarly journals The making of arms in South Africa

Author(s):  
J. Paul Dunne

The article presents a history of South Africa's arms industry. It charts the creation of Armscor, the post-apartheid breaking up of its procurement and production roles to form the current arms producer, Denel, and the even more recent restructuring of the industry. It is a story that shows the continuing legacy of apartheid, underlining the strength of the vested interests that make up the country's military-industrial complex, and highlights the important influence international arms producers can have. The article raises concerns over the structure and governance of the industry and over an arms offset deal associated with the most recently signed major arms acquisition package, and traces the dangers that are present for any small country that becomes embroiled in the international arms market.

Author(s):  
Timofey V. Alekseev ◽  

The paper deals with the history of the Olonets metal works – one of the centres of military industry in pre-revolutionary Russia. It aimed to analyse the views of Russian researchers on the problems of military production at these plants and their role in providing the army and navy with weapons in the 18th – еarly 20th centuries. The works of the pre-revolutionary, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods were studied. The relevance of this research is substantiated by the need for an in-depth examination of such a phenomenon in Russian history as the military-industrial complex and its prototype represented by the military industry of pre-revolutionary Russia. The article is focused on the way Russian historiography presents the organization of military production at the Olonets metal works, their technical reconstruction in order to master the production of brand new types of weapons, as well as the role of foreign specialists and foreign technical, technological and organizational experience in this process. The study revealed some important features of the Olonets metal works operation: the use of the economy’s mobilization mechanisms for their creation, their role as a transmitter of military production experience to other Russian regions, the influence of non-economic factors on the existence of military industry enterprises, as well as the effect and significance of diffusion of innovations in military industry. It is concluded that the final period in the history of the Olonets metal works (late 19th – early 20th centuries) is poorly reflected in Russian historiography. In addition, the research points out the need for a comprehensive work on the history of military production at the Olonets metal works in general.


Author(s):  
Shawn M. Powers ◽  
Michael Jablonski

This chapter examines the emergence of an Information-Industrial Complex in the United States, tracking the rise of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the modern knowledge economy. It first outlines the origins and history of Information-Industrial Complex's antecedent, the Military-Industrial Complex, before turning to the beginnings of the Information-Industrial Complex itself. It then considers how the U.S. government has cultivated a close and codependent relationship with companies involved in information production, storage, processing, and distribution, referred to as the “information industries.” It also looks at In-Q-Tel, a corporation that would “ensure that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) remains at the cutting edge of information technology advances and capabilities,” along with the rise of information assurance after 9/11. The chapter concludes by highlighting the commodification of digital information in the post-9/11 environment through its securitization.


Author(s):  
Thomas I. Faith

This book documents the institutional history of the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS), the U.S. Army organization responsible for chemical warfare, from its origins in 1917 through Amos A. Fries's departure as CWS chief in 1929. It examines the U.S. chemical warfare program as it developed before the nation began sending soldiers to fight in France during World War I; the American Expeditionary Force's experiences with poison gas on the Western Front; the CWS's struggle to continue its chemical weapons program in a hostile political environment after the war; and CWS efforts to improve its public image as well as its reputation in the military in the first half of the 1920s. The book concludes with an assessment of the CWS's successes and failures in the second half of the 1920s. Through the story of the CWS, the book shows how the autonomy of the military-industrial complex can be limited when policymakers are confronted with pervasive, hostile public opinion.


2021 ◽  

In Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Michel-Rolph Trouillot writes that by examining the process of history we can “discover the differential exercise of power that makes some narratives possible and silences others.” Alternative Historiographies of the Digital Humanities examines the process of history in the narrative of the digital humanities and deconstructs its history as a straight line from the beginnings of humanities computing. By discussing alternatives histories of the digital humanities that address queer gaming, feminist game studies praxis, Cold War military-industrial complex computation, the creation of the environmental humanities, monolingual discontent in DH, the hidden history of DH in English studies, radical media praxis, cultural studies and DH, indigenous futurities, Pacific Rim postcolonial DH, the issue of scale and DH, the radical, indigenous, feminist histories of the digital database, and the possibilities for an antifascist DH, this collection hopes to re-set discussions of the straight, white origin myths of DH. Thus, this collection hopes to reexamine the silences in such a straight and white masculinist history and delineates how power comes into play to shape this straight, white DH narrative. A number of the pieces in this volume go back to the origin myth of the digital humanities to reassess the hagiography of Father Busa by reconsidering and recontextualizing his legacy and his work in relation to media archaeology, politics, Cold War maneuvers, mechanized genocide, the Third Reich, and the military-industrial complex as it has organized various fields, including Asian Studies. This reassessment of comparative genealogies — vis-à-vis Foucault — undergirds an alternative history of the Jesuit hagiography we have so far been unwilling to reexamine for its narrative use in embellishing an origin hagiography/historiography for digital humanities. Other pieces intertwine the digital humanities with other fields — area studies, Asian American Studies, cultural studies, literary studies, and environmental studies — in order to reexamine how the intersections and juxtapositions reveal silences in these histories. And finally, a number of pieces considers alternative praxes in rethinking these histories, whether it is an essay that is a game or a reevaluation of feminist media praxis.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Czarny ◽  
Jerzy Menkes

We analyze the correlation between the European integration and incorporating Germany into the process of European cooperation. We point out that the European integration after WWII was determined by the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in the year 1951. This Community made it possible to control the steel industry of the Member States (among them Germany) within the framework of the common market. It was aimed at stable and harmonized development, as well as at preventing an uncontrolled growth of military-industrial complex, increasing the production for the army and decreasing the probability of the outbreak of the next war. Then - after the deepening of cooperation (taking her new areas) – the European Communities (EC) were created. They are still institutional foundations of the EU. One of the main reasons of the EC creation was the willingness to ensure lasting peace in Europe and to create „security community” through a.o. incorporation of Germany into the group of cooperating states. In this paper, we analyze the security system components created (e.g.) by the EC/EU, as well as the origin and changes of their characteristics.  We compare the process of German unification (and more general: of defining the German unity, and broader: unity of the German speaking territory) after WWI and WWII. The analysis of similarities and differences leads us to the present stage of the European integration, when the unification of two German states was accomplished for the price of German acceptance of deepening of the integration and the creation of the European monetary union. We analyze various consequences of unification of Germany and the creation of the euro zone. In our opinion, they go far beyond the economic or political  ones, and are connected with the EU Eastern enlargement.


Author(s):  
Paul C. Light

Chapter 1 provides a broad history of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address and the author’s methodology for estimating the true size of the government-industrial complex workforce. The chapter begins with Eisenhower’s decision to deliver a nationally televised speech warning the nation of the grave threats created by the conjunction of an imperative, but immense military and armaments industry. The chapter explores the history of the speech and the president’s chosen words for characterizing the military-industrial complex. The chapter continues with a discussion of the method used for estimating the true size of the federal, contract, and grant workforces. The method converts federal spending into estimates of the full-time-equivalent contract and grant employment for use in side-by-side comparisons to the federal workforce. The chapter ends with a discussion of the data deficit surrounding the government-industrial complex and warns readers that all data have expiration dates, including the data used in the book.


2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen B. Adams

The early history of Silicon Valley is incomplete unless it is framed within the context of American foreign policy. The Federal Telegraph Company, the region's first major high-technology firm, received its first contract from the U.S. Navy in 1913. Its subsequent success relied not only on navy contracts but also on State Department support and access to Bureau of Standards technology. The company's contributions to America's military-industrial complex began a pattern that would fuel the region's development and growth for more than a half century.


Author(s):  
Timothy Rowlands ◽  
Sheruni Ratnabalasuriar ◽  
Kyle Noel

A product of the military-industrial complex, from the origins of the medium, video games have been associated with violence. As they have become increasingly popular, finding their ways into many households in the United States and around the world, video games have come under increasing scrutiny for the graphic depictions of violence and sexuality some present. An overview of the history of video games suggests this is not a recent problem. As early as 1976, there has been public outcry for regulation of the industry to prevent antisocial content from findings its way into the hands of children. While some politicians, newsmakers, and activist attorneys have stirred up moral panics in response, courts in the United States have generally remained dispassionate. Unmoved by the inconsistent research exploring the connection between video games, aggression, violence, and crime, these courts have insisted on a hands-off approach in order to avoid infringing upon freedom of speech. Nevertheless, likely unrelated to this question of transference, video games have created new venues for the commission of real criminal acts such as fraud and harassment. This points to the ways video games and the virtual worlds they sometimes present have become very real and meaningful parts of everyday life for many people.


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