CIVIL RECONSTRUCTIONS OF MILITARY TECHNOLOGY - THE UNITED-STATES AND RUSSIA

With the end of the Cold War, the relationship between military and ci vil 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 consequ ence 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 devel opment. Key concepts here are critical technologies, technology assess ment, prototyping and flexible production. In Russia, because of the l ack of strong civil actors in the vacuum succeeding the collapse of th e Soviet Union, a different development track is emerging. As few exam ples exist of Western joint ventures, and since conversion is facing b oth financial and organizational barriers, the conversion problem has been reformulated. The main focus is no longer on conversion of milita ry facilities and know-how for civilian uses. The emerging paradigm im plies export of weapons inter alia, to finance conversion. However, su ch military exports are now justified with reference to commercial con cerns. The task is to integrate Russia within the world economy and to gain access to foreign currency. This article sees these reconstructi ons of military technology in a theoretical perspective, as a result o f which a new research agenda for peace studies emerges.