ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the issue of demilitarisation in southern Africa from an economic perspective. At a conceptual level, demilitarisation is primarily concerned with the military. The chapter focuses on the allocation of resources to the defence sector, and the economic impact of the re-allocation of resources from the military to alternative. It describes, quantify, the nature and extent of economic demilitarisation in southern Africa since the early 1990s, at both national and regional levels. The chapter attempts to ascertain whether the re-allocation of resources from the military to alternative arenas has had a positive impact on economic growth and human development in the countries of southern Africa. It considers the concept of demilitarisation and related concepts such as militarism, militarisation, disarmament and conversion. The chapter provides a number of quantitative indicators of economic demilitarisation, and discusses some of the problems associated with obtaining reliable and comparable military data. It also considers the future prospects for demilitarisation in southern Africa.
