Con Pec 2003; 22:41-62
© 2003 Cambridge Political Economy Society
Article |
The post-war American technological development as a military enterprise
Instituto de Economia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Abstract
This paper argues that the basic industrial innovations that shaped the modern American technology was conceptualised and developed as a military enterprise. The militaryindustrialacademic complex created a scientific-driven process of innovation aimed simultaneously to win the cold war against the Soviet Union, to push the science frontier and to consolidate the American leadership in the world. After the collapse of the Soviet Union new initiatives and conceptions about future wars were formulated. The terrorist attack of September 11 gave a special momentum to new military questions that seem to be pushing again the American science for a new wave of industrial innovations