Citation

Ward MD, Cohen JS, Betsill M. Def. Peace Econ. 1995; 6(3): 221-235.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10430719508404827

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article examines two institutions heavily involved in the US defence industry during the Cold War, Martin Marietta (later Lockheed Martin) and the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility. Analyses of these two institutions suggest that “conversion” per se is unlikely to occur at either in the near term future. Rather like plutonium, these institutions appear to have long-lives, slowly and expensively decaying. In addition, the inter-democratic peace proposition is examined as a third facet of conversion, and the argument is made that domestic and foreign policy conversions may in fact provide a more profound conversion than that hoped for in commercial arenas.