ABSTRACT
The major economic obstacle to reconversion has become the lack of investments needed to switch to the production of civilian goods, such as changes in equipment, retraining of personnel and so on. Nations usually face the necessity of reconversion after big wars. A major source of experience on reconversion is how nations have dealt with the necessity in the past. Only some of the difficulties will be touched upon, in view of the many dimensions and extremely complicated nature of the problem of reconversion. The Institute for the USA and Canada has been involved in efforts to help reconversion from the beginning of the 1990s. Only then can Russia decide what really is no longer needed and should be reconverted or closed - although already many defence enterprises which should undergo reconversion are easily identified. Combined with economic difficulties and military uncertainties, practical fears can put very strong brakes on the process of reconversion.
