The other programme – world’s annual military expenditures – is closely linked to interests of military-industrial complex.It is not once per life project, it seems to be never-ending story with steady growing some 6 % yearly.Besides gaining strength by itself MIC is today expanding with new forms for wider influence.
MIC
Military-industrialcomplex
(MIC) is a concept commonly used to refer to policy relationships
between governments, national armed forces, and industrial support they
obtain from the commercial sector in political approval for research,
development, production, use, and support for military training,
weapons, equipment, and facilities within the national defence and
security policy. It is a type of iron triangle. (More Wikipedia).
New MIC forms
Today’s
MIC is expanded from its Cold War original to MIMAC
(Military-Industrial-Academic-Media Complex), MIMEN
(Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment-Network) or to some other
combination.
In
Academic world neuro-weapons and diverse applications of numerous
branches of research that blur the distinctions between government,
military, and medical, technological and scientific research. (More
e.g. in Leslie, Stuart W: The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993)
One
example of Academic connection is Carnegie Mellon University in
Pittsburgh is one of the largest academic military contractors in the
country. Many of the software guidance systems, general communications
networking systems and robotics technology used in Iraq were developed
at CMU. So much so that some have nicknamed CMU, Carnegie Military
University.
Connections
to media can be e.g. like General Electric-NBC –relation or wider to
some specific sector like computer war games. (More e.g. Der Derian,
James:Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network. Boulder: Westview Press, 2001).Growing
contingent of corporate, entertainment, academic, media collaborators
are bringing war-making systems near everyone’s lives. (More NickTurse:The Complex - How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives, 2009)
And the relevance with EP election is…
Are MEPs and EP still in future dealing with eco-bulbs and curvature of cucumber or can they find issues which really matters?
More about topic Masters Of War by Bob Dylan and more my views in my BalkanBlog!