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Towards a Political Economy of Military Spending

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Towards a Political Economy of Military Spending Towards a Political Economy of Military Spending by Mark Robbins A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Political Economy Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2015, Mark Robbins 1 Abstract Although the direct costs of the military are well known, there is regular reference to the ‘spin-offs’ that supposedly justify military expenditure. Unfortunately, the sheer heterogeneity and complexity of military institutions and political-economic landscapes have consistently eluded an even-keel and scientific analysis of military spinoffs. To pursue this question of military spending’s externalities further requires a stronger analytical foundation which clearly situates the military’s role within the political- economy. This work thus seeks to navigate a rich ontological landscape across a wide historical spectrum in order to colour the relationship between the military, the state, and society at large. Focusing attention on questions of military investment in human capital, military R&D, Keynesianism and other tenants of military spending, I posit that, while military spending tends to be less economically productive than comparable spending projects conducted through other means, military spending performs functions indispensable to the political-economic structure of the state. 2 Acknowledgements I like to thank both Dr. Randall Germain and Dr. Elinor Sloan for their comments and feedback as the work progressed as well as Dr. Norman Hillmer for his insights as a member of the defence committee. I would also like to thank Dr. Randall Germain and Dr. Laura MacDonald for their encouragement and support throughout the pursuit of my Master’s studies at Carleton University and the Institute of Political Economy. I would not have gotten this far without them and the confidence they placed in my abilities. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for making this work possible and my fiancé, Rose, for making it bearable. 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 3 Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. 4 Chapter #1 ......................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter #2 ....................................................................................................................... 14 2.1 The Birth of the State and the Liberal Tradition................................................... 15 2.2 The Critical Tradition .............................................................................................. 21 2.3 Embedded Liberalism: A Post-War Synthesis ....................................................... 27 Chapter #3 ....................................................................................................................... 33 3.1 Military Keynesianism.............................................................................................. 34 3.2 The Subtle Contours of Military Macroeconomics................................................ 43 3.3 Unproductivity Reconsidered .................................................................................. 47 3.4 The Glue of Statehood .............................................................................................. 54 Chapter #4 ....................................................................................................................... 62 4.1 A Catalyst to Scientific Breakthroughs?................................................................. 64 4.2 Spinoffs....................................................................................................................... 69 4.3 The Root of the Myth ................................................................................................ 76 4.4 Early Iconoclasm ....................................................................................................... 82 Chapter #5 ....................................................................................................................... 88 5.1 Tail .............................................................................................................................. 93 5.2 Tooth ........................................................................................................................ 102 5.3 Institutional Education ........................................................................................... 109 Chapter #6 ..................................................................................................................... 119 6.1 Understanding Civil-Military Relations ............................................................... 120 4 6.2 Civil-Military Relations in the Post-War Era ...................................................... 126 6.3 The Market and the Military ................................................................................. 131 6.4 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 146 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 144 5 Chapter #1 An Introduction to Military Spending 'War is not merely an act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, carried on through other means.'1 Carl Von Clausewitz (Prussian General and military theorist) Military spending is an eclectic topic of analysis, the boundaries of which ebb and flow greatly according to the historical context and theoretical approach employed. One certainty is that term 'military spending' applies to a range of government activities and so it is only natural that political considerations are central to any ontology of military spending. There are a host of non-political considerations that define the nature and form of military expenditures, the historical and comparative importance of which highlights the military's uniqueness in the pantheon of government budget items. Indeed, the relationship between the state and the military is a special one, unparalleled by any other government entity, with the military being the ultimate guarantor of the foremost pre- requisite of statehood itself, the state's monopoly of legitimate violence. Yet, such a defining element of the polis is far from falling securely under the hegemony of political consideration with the military's push and pull on the forces of history decidedly unbounded by politics alone. Niall Ferguson remarked that, with the past 50 years being somewhat of an exception, 'the cost of warfare was the biggest (single) influence on state budgets'2 for all of human history with military imperatives driving the direction of state activity and guiding the very manifestation of the state itself. On occasions of great conflict where the military’s role is front and centre, we observe similarly great transformations to the political process and the state. Ferguson notes that there has, for 1 Carl Von Clausewitz, On War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) 28. 2 Niall Ferguson, The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World (New York: Basic Books, 2001) 25. 6 example, been a steady trend for greater political representation to be conceded to lower classes in times of conflict so as to legitimate the broad tax increases required to pursue military victory.3 While a significant observation in itself, the implications of this for the state and society are profound and it raises questions about the ability of military endeavors to shape the course of politics more broadly. For instance, even while the extension of regular direct taxation and representation beyond the upper classes gradually began during 16th century, this process accelerated sharply during the Napoleonic wars with the adoption of mass conscription (the levée en masse) and other manifestations of warfare's democratization.4 Indeed, these were times of profound change with the centrality of the military following the French Revolution and during the Napoleonic wars (1789-1815) representing a watershed moment in the evolution of the state and society. In 1968, Chinese diplomat Zhou Enlai was asked how the French Revolution had impacted the world, and he responded that it was ‘too soon to say’. The reader will find that this type of long-run perspective and contextualization of the present through the distant past to be a recurrent theme of this work. Even before this ‘long 19th century’, a strong association has existed between the inclusiveness of warfare and the inclusiveness of civil institutions as a whole. There is indeed a strong connection between the goings on of the military and the rest of society, with George Orwell noting a correlation between democratic enfranchisement and the cost of military arms, writing that ‘the following rule would be found generally true: that ages in which the dominant weapon is expensive or difficult to make will tend to be ages of despotism, whereas when the dominant weapon 3 Be it the example of Athens in the Peloponnesian Wars all the way to the extension of universal suffrage in Western countries following the World Wars. Niall Ferguson, The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World 77. 4 Niall Ferguson, The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern
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