Syllabus
Sylabus for JPM 716
Session 1: Organisation of the Course, Introduction: Defence Industry, its structure and major actors (4/10/2023)
Session 2: Trends, developments in defence industry and impact of RMA since the end of the Cold War (4/10/2023)
Session 3: The geopolitics of defence industry: a conceptual perspective. The defence industrial complex, its influence on foreign policy (11/10/2023)
Session 4: Major actors in defence industry and arms trade: approaches of USA, Russia, Israel, China. Dynamics of the relations with recipients of their equipment and its consequences to geopolitics. (11/10/2023)
Session 5: Major actors in defence industry and arms trade: approaches of Germany, France, UK, Pakistan. (18/10/2023)
Session 6: Arms control mechanisms (special guest) (18/10/2023)
Session 7: European defence industrial base: EU and NATO collaborative policies in defence industry (25/10/2023)
Session 8: Weapon systems and Emerging and Disruptive Technologies - a new key trend in defence industrial ecosystem (25/10/2023)
Session 9+10: Interactive Seminar - role playing in the defence-industrial business (November)
Session 11+12/Special Seminar: Visit of a major Czech defence industry manufacturer - TBD
Annotation
The aim of this course is to describe, analyze and contextualize a very important and yet often forgotten dimension of geopolitics – the defence industry and arms trade.
The security and defence mechanisms of every country depend on their ability to face an enemy or adversary with appropriate defence equipment. Military capabilities are very much dependent on the availability of the needed material infrastructure, weapons and weapon systems. Defence materiel is also a tool for promoting and selling a country’s own economic, political and military interests and for deepening the bilateral relations with the recipient state. The security of supply of defence materiel is often considered a cornerstone of a country’s defence mechanisms.
The defence industry is not only a foreign policy tool of a particular supplying country. It is also an active player on its own, promoting its business interests while linking them to broader security and defence agendas of diverse actors. With the control of arms trade being just the starting point of the whole cycle, this course will focus on the mechanisms behind arms trade as well as the inner dynamics, evolution and current trends of the defence industry as such.