Questioning Globalized Militarism: Nuclear and Military Production and Critical Economic Theory

Encompassing critical economic theory, historical studies of the rise of capitalism, and conceptualizations of international trade, this study provides a detailed analysis of the inequities spawned by globalized militarism. Drawing especially on Marx's Capital, it utilizes the individual circuit of capital outlined in that work to demonstrate the generation of various types of waste at each step in the military and civilian nuclear-production chains. Also proposed is the new concept of negative-use value, highlighting the adverse consequences for human beings and the environment of products that are churned out by the military-nuclear complex. The survey also advances a particularly insightful thesis in opposition to the view that the capitalist system in its earlier phases operated as a market system governed by internal exchanges. The chapters produce historical evidence to demonstrate that this system always incorporated a vital external agent—namely the capitalist state—which has played a significant role in capitalism's evolution at crucial junctures.