The Defence Business

New Statesman Special Supplemet

The very idea of a defence industry, in this enlightened age, makes many of us uncomfortable. To mobilise labour, capital and technology in a perfectly ordinary, industrial-estate sort of way, and then to funnel them into more ingenious and efficient ways of killing people, is, on the face of it, grotesque.

Yet there is probably more widespread tolerance of the industry than at any time since the Second World War. When did you last hear someone say "disarmament"? The "speak softly and carry a big stick" lobby has prevailed for now, with 11 September as something of a clincher, while what we used to call the arms industry has modulated into the defence sector.

Fair enough. So if, utopians aside, we accept that we must secure peace by preparing for war, the next serious question is: do we need and want a defence industry right here in Britain?

To read the New Statesman special supplement on defence click here.

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With thanks to BAE Systems