Real Security

Converting the Defense Economy and Building Peace

Edited by Kevin J. Cassidy & Gregory A. Bischak

Subjects: Political Theory
Series: SUNY series, Global Conflict and Peace Education
Paperback : 9780791416082, 308 pages, September 1993
Hardcover : 9780791416075, 308 pages, October 1993

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Table of contents

Foreword
Betty A. Reardon

Introduction and Overview
Kevin J. Cassidy

Part One Real Security and Economic Conversion

1. Cooperative Security, Disarmament, and the Construction of International Peacekeeping Institutions
Gregory A. Bischak

2. Economic Development, Technology, and Defense Conversion: A National Policy Perspective
Joel Yudken

3. Environmental Dimensions of Disarmament and Conversion
Michael Renner

4. The Obstacles to Real Security: Military Corporatism and the Cold War State
Gregory A. Bischak

Part Two The Making of Conversion Policy

5. Economic Conversion: The Key to Building a Peace Economy
Gregory A. Bischak and Joel Yudken

6. Capitol Hill and Conversion: A Summary of Recent Congressional Action
Maggie Bierwirth

7. Converting the Military Industrial Economy: The Experience of Six Communities
Catherine Hill, Sabina Deitrick, and Ann Markusen

8. Building a Peace Economy from the Bottom Up
Michael Closson

9. Post-Soviet Conversion: Problems and Prospects
David W. McFadden

10. Conclusion: Real Security, Real Democracy
Kevin J. Cassidy

Appendix: President Clinton's 1993 Conversion Program

Gregory A. Bischak

Contributors

Index

Description

With the end of the Cold War and the extraordinary military competition that characterized it, the meaning of national security is being redefined. This book participates in that task by proposing a new, demilitarized foreign policy based on collective security, and an industrial policy capable of shifting the country's major resources from military purposes to the revitalization of the economy. This reduction in military production will also make possible the reversal of the environmental legacy of the Cold War, analyzed at length here.

Kevin J. Cassidy is Associate Professor of Politics at Fairfield University. Gregory A. Bischak is Executive Director of the National Commission on Economic Conversion and Disarmament.

Reviews

"The book makes a strong and consistent case for significant reductions in defense spending, and reviews what will have to happen to make it possible in the least disruptive way. The coverage is broad and informative, ranging from foreign policy to industrial policy and environmental concerns." — Tom Riddell, Smith College

"This book details what cannot be left to the 'free market' and what must be dealt with by deliberate, explicit policy." — Seymour Melman, Columbia University