Defense industrial base

In political science, the defense industrial base (or DIB), or defense industrial and technological base is a government's industrial assets that are of direct or indirect importance for the production of equipment for a country's armed forces. It is loosely associated with realism, which views the state as the preponderant guarantor of security, and frequently features as an element of grand strategy and defense policy, as well as diplomacy.

United States

A commonly cited example of a defense industrial base is that of the United States, where, given the onset of the Cold War accompanied by the outbreak of the Korean War, the maintenance "of a peacetime defense industry of significant proportions was an unprecedented event."^[1]

Researchers and public figures critical of close ties among legislators, militaries, and the defense industrial base due to a government's monopoly on demand for products of the latter employ the concept of the military–industrial complex to critique these connections. Early studies of interest group representation in the US referred to these ties as exemplary of the iron triangle phenomenon.

Government Coordinating Council

As of January 27th, 2023, the current governing council of the Defense industrial base in the United States of America includes:

1. Office of the Director of National Intelligence
2. National Security Council
3. U.S. Department of Commerce
   • Office of Technology Evaluation, Bureau of Industry and Security
4. U.S. Department of Defense
   • Director of the Joint Staff
   • Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense and Global Security
   • Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Material Readiness
   • Office of DoD Chief Information Officer
   • Office of the Chief, National Guard Bureau
   • Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment
   • Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence
   • Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness
5. U.S. Department of Energy
6. U.S. Department of Homeland Security
   • Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
7. U.S. Department of Justice
   • Federal Bureau of Investigation
8. U.S. Department of State
   • Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
9. U.S. Department of the Treasury
   • Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection & Compliance Policy

Works cited

• Austin, Mike: Managing the US Defense Industrial Base: A Strategic Imperative, Parameters, Summer 1994, pp. 27–37.
• Boezer, Gordon; Gutmaris, Ivans; Muckerman II, Joseph E.: The Defense Technology and Industrial Base: Key Component of National Power, Parameters, Summer 1997, pp. 26–51.
• Abbott, Gerald; Johnson, Stuart: The Changing Defense Industrial Base, Strategic Forum, No. 96, November 1996.
• Gentsch, Eric L.; Peterson, Donna J. S.: A Method for Industrial Base Analysis: An Aerospace Case Study, Bethesda, MD: Logistics Management Institute, 1993
• Markusen, Ann: The Rise of World Weapons, Foreign Policy, No. 114, Spring, 1999, pp. 40–51

References

External links

• A description of the DIB by the Dept of Homeland Security
• DIB programs: Where industry and security intersect, from the Dept. of Commerce