Conservation, integration and foreign dependency: Prelude to a new economic security strategy

Abstract

With dramatic changes in the international environment, and the resulting substantial defense budget reductions, defense planners are being forced to grabble with old problems in new ways. The intractability of efforts to foster industrial conversion, and the cumulative record of acquisition reform, are leading toward a consensus about relying more heavily on the commercial sectors of the economy to meet defense requirements. Carrying through with a policy of civil-military integration (CMI) will require a concept of economic security that is more internationally oriented than is traditional for the Department of Defense (DOD) and, at the same time, accommodates very real concerns about foreign dependency. New analatical approaches will be required to help focus attention on high-risk foreign dependencies. One such approach —the Foreign Vulnerability Index (FVI) — is developed here. Its strengths and weaknesses are discussed.