ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the influence of what President Dwight Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex on defense spending and federal budget priorities. It discusses the issues and concerns surrounding weapons procurement and defense contracting and the impact of defense spending on the national economy. The chapter describes the approach to defense spending of recent presidents and the relationship of that spending to our foreign policy objectives and international involvement. For defense contractors, foreign military sales are a hedge against cuts in regular military procurement and, of course, are enormously profitable. Critics of this arms trade emphasize that the United States is the number one supplier of weapons to countries around the world, thus contributing to an ever growing arsenal of deadly weapons, often times to support autocratic regimes. Moreover, such enormous sales of sophisticated weapons shift resources in many countries away from domestic needs to national defense.
