Democracy's Arsenal: Creating a Twenty-First-Century Defense Industry

An expert explains why the security needs of the twenty-first century require a transformation of the defense industry of the twentieth century.

New geopolitical realities—including terrorism, pandemics, rogue nuclear states, resource conflicts, insurgencies, mass migration, economic collapse, and cyber attacks—have created a dramatically different national-security environment for America. Twentieth-century defense strategies, technologies, and industrial practices will not meet the security requirements of a post-9/11 world. In Democracy's Arsenal, Jacques Gansler describes the transformations needed in government and industry to achieve a new, more effective system of national defense. Drawing on his decades of experience in industry, government, and academia, Gansler argues that the old model of ever-increasing defense expenditures on largely outmoded weapons systems must be replaced by a strategy that combines a healthy economy, effective international relations, and a strong (but affordable) national security posture. The defense industry must remake itself to become responsive and relevant to the needs of twenty-first-century security.

Jacques S. Gansler is the author of the influential books The Defense Industry, Affording Defense, and Defense Conversion: Transforming the Arsenal of Democracy, all published by the MIT Press. He is currently Professor and Roger C. Lipitz Chair in Public Policy and Private Enterprise in the School of Public Policy and Director of the Sloan Center Biotechnology Industry Center at the University of Maryland. He was Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics from 1997 to 2001.