New realities of defence industrialization.

Abstract

Defence industrialization is an interesting topic that it highlights the interplay between states in the international arena, and between the civil and military sectors within a nations's economy. The post Cold War period has set the conditions for which the traditional way to sustain one's own defence industry does not work. A new defence environment has emerged with only one dominant player. In order to ensure defence self-reliance, to reduce their dependence on high technology from foreign sources, and from the power of the dominant defence sellers, these lower tier states must find different ways to survive. Some of these lower tier states do survive, through the integration of their civil and military sectors, and to focus more on the dual use technologies. The cases of Japan and Malaysia will highlight why the civil military integration is very important to sustaining domestic defence industrialization, and hence strengthen their defence self reliance. Through these initiatives, it can be proved that lower tier states (every country excluding the US and Russia) can achieve defence self-reliance, and be successful in the face of the bleak and monopolistic defence environment.