Technology policy in the post-Cold War world.
Journal of Economic Issues › Vol. 28 Nbr. 2, June 1994
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Technology policy in the post-Cold War world.
Technology policy in the United States has been driven by the Pentagon for many decades. The civilian technology strategy was simply to hope for "spin-offs" from the nation's investment in military technology. Any public effort to improve the nation's manufacturing technology, for example, was dismissed as being beyond the appropriate government role. The strategy instead was to hope for investments in guided missiles to pay off in advances for machine tools.
In the post-Cold War world, careful strides toward a new technology policy are being taken. DARPA, the Defense Applied Research Projects Agency, has dropped the D. The Commerce Department is overseeing the federal critical technologies effort. On Capital Hill, the absence of a rubber-stamp veto has moved major technology bills from the Armed Services Committees into the hands of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee and the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. And the White House has initiated a bundle of blatantly civilian technology proposals. But the influence of the Pentagon remains strong. ARPA is still housed at the Defense Department. The critical technologies around which the Commerce effort is centered were culled from a list assembled at DOD. And defense conversion continues to ...See the full content of this document
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