Beyond the iron triangle : the military-industrial complex as assemblage
Salisbury, Emma Catherine Grosvenor (2024) Beyond the iron triangle : the military-industrial complex as assemblage. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
The phrase “military-industrial complex” is at once both widely known and largely vague. Most people with some interest in national security matters will be familiar with the idea of the “iron triangle” — the relations between the three institutions of the military, the government, and industry — and the idea that there is some form of interaction between these three around matters of war and defence. However, there has been little comprehensive work on what the military-industrial complex actually is as a concept — how it should be defined, what its parts are, and how they interact in practice. This dissertation aims to answer these questions and provide both a thorough examination of and a theoretical basis for analysing the workings of the military-industrial complex. The iron triangle concept as commonly applied implies a rigidity of structure that I argue that the military-industrial complex simply does not display in practice. Rather, it is a fluid and ever-changing system, and neither its parts nor their relations to each other are static over time. Furthermore, this kind of rigidity prevents us from comprehending how the military-industrial complex truly manifests and inhibits our understanding of its effects, making it more difficult to ameliorate the negative outcomes that it can produce for national security. I posit instead that the military-industrial complex is best understood as an assemblage, moving away from the rigidity of commonly held ideas like the iron triangle toward a conceptualisation that brings in the fluidity and change that the military-industrial complex exhibits in practice. I prompt scholars and policymakers to question what they mean by “the military-industrial complex” and offer a fresh and comprehensive way to conceptualise and understand it.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
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| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Jul 2024 14:47 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Jul 2024 11:09 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/53871 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00053871 |
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