Military Industrial Complex Foreign Aid Essay

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Military/Industrial

What is the military-industrial complex? Which president first expressed concern about this trend and why?

Lately the world has seen an increase in conflict and war. This is because war and armed conflict is increasingly being used in place of negotiations and talks to resolve crisis. The use of brute force, especially by America in the wake of the war on terror has increased with America spreading its armed forces all across the globe, be it Afghanistan, Iraq, the Arab Spring uprisings, Pakistan and the list goes on. The military-industrial complex is seen by a few experts as the reason behind increasing conflict, and this in turn has affected the equilibrium and the rationale of comparative politics. Before we go on to discuss the relationship of the military-industrial conflict to the increase in world conflicts, it is important to know what it entails.

The military industrial complex refers to policy as well as monetary relationships which exist between the government, the armed forces and the private industries. The first President who was aggrieved about it, and saw it as a particular fallacy of the democratic system in America was President Eisenhower who used the term in his farewell speech warning against its drawbacks.

The impact that this 'iron triangle' has on world relationships is in the following manner. Industrialists who are manufacturing weapons also lobby in the government. As the demand for weapons, on the back of an increase in armed conflict is high, they have enough financial power to back the government senators. Moreover these lobbyists also back up election campaigns so that when these candidates are successfully in the government they can make legislations and vote for bills that are in favor of weapon manufacturers. These same legislators also decide upon how America is going to side with other nations, and when there is an opportunity, armed conflict is engaged in by the military so that the demand for weapons can be sustained, bringing in more money for the industrialists.

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This was what the President was talking about in his farewell speech and this is the trend that can be seen in America's foreign policy today. America has engaged in two wars, and while Afghanistan's war was on the pretext of the war on terror, the war on Iraq in search of non-existent chemical weapons has been termed to be a mistake and has failed. And yet America continues to back rebels in Libya, Egypt, Yemen as well as having been active in opposing Fidel Castro in Cuba. Such intervention on the back of America being hit by recession indicates an anomaly. This is because on one hand, the Obama government is seeking to increase taxation in order to gain much needed revenue to boost public spending and increase aggregate demand. However, on the other hand, the government continues to attack Pakistan, operate in the Arab Spring regions and fund its war on Iraq.

This complex has brought to light how a principle-agent problem has given rise to a world torn with conflict. While the government is the agent for its people, the lobbying arrangement has divided the loyalties of the government so that it can either serve the industrialists or it can serve its people. In the cases mentioned here, the government seems to be favoring the industrialists.

There are arguments that the country does not have such aims as it cannot compromise the position of the country and it cannot peril its people for fear of retaliation. However such an argument cannot be accepted as America is in a strong military position and its security is tight and there have not been any attacks on American soil.

The military-industrial complex thus is a policy and financial relationship that divides the loyalty of the American legislators and the military and is….....

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https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/military-industrial-complex-foreign-aid-115680
   

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