ABSTRACT
The difficulty about reaching firm conclusions concerning the worth of international armaments collaboration is that the absence of empirical data inhibits rigorous scientific analysis. This is not surprising, given that a fundamental obstacle to evaluating the benefits and costs of collaboration relative to national programmes is the non-availability of counterfactual data. Lacking a comparative framework for measuring collaborative performance means that serious debate is hindered. The danger with this is that anecdotal evidence and journalistic cliches evolve, and are perhaps relied upon, as though they represented 'iron-laws' on the subject. It is not possible to say with certainty that a collaborative project is less expensive than a national programme aimed at developing and producing an identical piece of equipment. Given the cost premium associated with defence cooperative projects, it may not be far-fetched to conceive that in certain less advanced equipment areas, national programmes could well prove a viable alternative; but the exceedingly high costs of R&D involved in major weapons systems would almost always preclude their consideration for solely domestic production. Thus, European collaboration in advanced, especially aerospace, military platforms are now de rigueur, even though the basis for this course of action leans more towards supposition than scientific analysis. For this reason, this book has taken a broad qualitative approach to the subject matter in the belief that it will prove more useful in spotlighting and assessing general trends of long-run policy importance than narrowly focussing on the meticulous investigation of one or two specific jointventures.
