Rich Nation, Strong Army

Richard J. Samuels

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Since World War II, Japan has become not only a model producer of high-tech consumer goods, but also - despite minimal spending on defense - a leader in innovative technology with both military and civilian uses. In the United States, nearly one in every three scientists and engineers was engaged in defense-related research and development at the end of the Cold War, but the relative strength of the American economy has declined in recent years. What is the relationship between what has happened in the two countries? And where did Japan's technological excellence come from? In an economic history that will arouse controversy on both sides of the Pacific, Richard J. Samuels finds a key to Japan's success in an ideology of technological development that advances national interests. From 1868 until 1945, the Japanese economy was fired by the development of technology to enhance national security; the rallying cry "Rich Nation, Strong Army" accompanied the expanded military spending and aggressive foreign policy that led to the disasters of the War in the Pacific. Postwar economic planners reversed the assumptions that had driven Japan's industrialization, Samuels shows, promoting instead the development of commercial technology and infrastructure. By valuing process improvements as much as product innovation, the modern Japanese system has built up the national capacity to innovate while ensuring that technological advances have been diffused broadly through industries such as aerospace that have both civilian and military applications. Struggling with the uncertainties of a post-Cold War economy, the United States has important lessons to learn from the way Japan has subordinated defenseproduction yet emerged as one of the most technologically sophisticated nations in the world. The Japanese, like the Venetians and the Dutch before them, show us that butter is just as likely as guns to make a nation strong, but that nations cannot hope to be strong without an id

Book Details

Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publish Date: May 9th, 1996
Pages: 480
Language: English
Edition: Revised - undefined
Dimensions: 9.20in - 6.10in - 1.14in - 1.49lb
EAN: 9780801499944
Categories: • International Relations - General• Political Economy• Security (National & International)

About the Author

Samuels, Richard J.: - Richard J. Samuels is Ford International Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Einstein Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Berlin. His books have won prizes from the American Political Science Association, the Association for Asian Studies, and the Society for Italian Historical Studies. His most recent book is 3.11: Disaster and Change in Japan. Follow him on Twitter @dicksamuelsMIT.

Praise for this book

A masterful study of the Japanese arms and aircraft industries, analyzing the interrelationship between military and civilian technology since the mid-nineteenth century.

-- "Foreign Affairs"

This book is a pleasure to read. It is a well-argued, lucid account and explanation of Japanese economic success since the Second World War; it is an excellent example of how, historically, to tackle questions of technology and technological innovation and their relation to economic change; and it provides fascinating insight into the debate about the role of national defense in either stimulating or suffocating economic activity.

-- "Business History"