ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to introduce readers unfamiliar with defense studies to the relevant literature. It analyzes the underlying foundation upon which the defense-growth relationship is based. The chapter examines what is known and not known about social spillovers within the defense-growth relationship. It provides an explanation of how those spillovers occur, and offers a discussion of the supporting evidence. Modern interest in the study of defense economics began in the wake of the Cold War. As the Cold War neared its end, research on the defense-growth relationship began to stall. Despite the large amount of research produced on the defense-growth relationship, the mainstream growth literature has never accepted the Feder-Ram model as a realistic representation of an economy's performance. The human capital of the defense sector refers to the education and skills instilled by the sector in soldiers during their military service.
