Conversion of the Military-Industrial Sector

Modern weapons and their effects and the increasingly burdensome costs of the arms race argue for its reversal. The conversion of military-industrial facilities to commercial or other nonmilitary uses is an important element in such a reversal because, in the absence of credible ways of arranging for an orderly change in national priorities, economic self-interest will be added as a further impediment to the obvious political difficulties in such a change. Conversion is shown to be a complex and time-consuming process involving products, markets, people and facilities. A report on a joint U.S.-Soviet symposium on the subject in June 1984 is also given.