Technology, weapons, and industrial development: The case of Israel

The impact of the indigenous design and production of technologically advanced weapons in industrializing states continues to be a subject of great interest and importance. To date, however, studies of this linkage have tended to be highly generalized and simplistic. Most use static models, which assume either that this investment tends to divert scarce resources from the task of “nation building,” or, at the other end of the spectrum, that such production “spills over” into other areas, providing an infrastructure for broader technological and managerial development. In this study, a relatively complex and dynamic model relating military production to economic and technological development is proposed. In examining the case of Israel, it is shown that military production passes through various stages and is composed of separate and usually diverse sectors, from electronics to metallurgy. At each level and for every sector, the type of technology required, and, thus, the investment, risks and the potential for spill-over are different. Although Israel is, in many cases, unusual, nevertheless the generalized model can serve as a basis for the investigation of other cases.