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Which Revolution in Military Affairs?

Political Discourse and the Defense Industrial Base

University of Albany, amajor{at}albany.edu

Since the arrival of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, the discourse of American military strategy has been framed around a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). This article takes up the question of whether the RMA discourse represents a real strategic shift through an examination of the distribution of Defense Department spending on procurement across economic sectors and geographical space for the period 1990 to 2004. Detailed analysis of procurement data shows that the RMA builds on an earlier transformation in the United States' defense posture around the post—cold war disarmament rather than signal a new era for the military.

Key Words: defense spending • military strategy • political discourse • regional economics

This version was published on January 1, 2009

Armed Forces & Society, Vol. 35, No. 2, 333-361 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X07312083


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