Weapons programs are criticized for cost overruns, delays in delivery and failure to meet their operational requirements. Critics focus on the power and influence of the military-industrial-political complex. This chapter addresses these controversial areas involving arms industries, alternative...

Voluntary military alliances, such as NATO, are often criticized for failing to exploit the opportunities for equipment standardization and free trade. However, nationalism means that governments adopt a variety of industrial policies for purchasing defense equipment, leading to departures from...

This chapter defines defense economics and indicates how it differs from other subfields of economics. The nature and topics of defense economics are presented. A brief history of the field is also reviewed. The current importance of defense economics in the post-cold war era is discussed....

Since the end of the Cold War, the world remains a dangerous place with new threats: regional conflicts, transnational terrorist networks, rogue states, and weapons of mass destruction (i.e., chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear). The second volume of the Handbook of Defense Economics...

BAE Systems is the UK’s largest defence and security firm and one of the world’s major arms companies. It has changed from a state-owned aerospace firm to a privatised specialist defence company involved in a range of air, land, sea and cyber systems with a major presence in the US defence...

This article addresses the relationship between European and U.K. defense industrial policy. It considers recent initiatives to create a European Defense Equipment Market and the U.K.’s Defense Industrial Strategy. The European and U.K. defense industries are evaluated and some of the future...

Defense economics is now an established part of economics. This article reviews its achievements as represented by papers published in the research journal Defense and Peace Economics. The range of topics in the journal is reviewed, especially since 2000, and major gaps in coverage are...

Collaborative defence projects have been a distinctive feature of European defence industrial policy. This article focuses on whether the number of partner nations in international collaborative defence and aerospace programmes is a source of inefficiency. It appears that there is not a simple...

This three-volume set presents over 100 of the most influential articles in defence economics, which have been selected for their enduring value and importance and for their contribution to an understanding of the field.