ECONOMICS IN DEFENCE

Abstract

The idea might formerly have applied that national defence is a strategic function performed by military specialists whose prerogative alone it was to decide on how and how much resources were to be applied in any circumstances for the country's defence requirements. However, the point is made here that decisions about defence requirements and the application of resources in this field can no longer be made in isolation from the rest of resource applicatrons in the other fields. Economics, the science that deals with decisions about the application of scarce resources, enters the terrain, and strategy, technology and economy become three mutually-dependent elements of the same problems. Interesting comparisons are drawn and instances pointed out where economic techniques make a contribution towards improved decision making and in the allocation and application of resources in the field of defence.