One for All or All for One?
A Study of Pentagon Tapping of Foreign Science & Technology
By Bjorn Hagelin
October 1997
Uppsala University Press
ISBN: 91-506-1174-7
180 pages, Illustrated, 6 1/2" x 9 1/2"
$39.50 Paper Original
This is a doctoral dissertation. Armament, i.e. an increase in the capacity to fight a war, is generally presented as a national undertaking. The dissertation addresses an international aspect of armament. The focus of the study is the surveillance and support by the American Department of Defense (DOD, the Pentagon) of foreign science and technology (S&T). A theoretical DOD tapping approach is developed, using different fields of work. The particular tapping function is taken from management studies of multinational companies (MNC), where tapping approach, foreign S&T is regarded as an input to military research and development. Two questions are posed and answered in the study. First, how has the DOD been able to locate and acquire foreign S&T? Second, from where? The first question is answered mainly by a description of the DOD science and technology intelligence organization created after the Second World War. The second question, which in effect asks about the configuration of DOD's foreign S&T system, is answered by a quantitative analysis of data on DOD support of foreign S&T from 1960 to 1992. A comparison is made with S&T support abroad by the then Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). The DOD foreign S&T system is, on the one hand, found to reflect US defense pacts: most S&T recipients were members of such pacts. But, on the other hand, such membership does not fully explain the amounts of S&T support received by individual recipients, the content of such support, or the changes in S&T support during and after the Cold War. Differences between the DOD and HEW S&T systems were found, but also similarities.
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