The military industrial complex

When the size of the military sector in a country and its importance to the economy, or indeed its cost to the economy, come under scrutiny the existence of a ‘Military Industrial Complex’ (MIC) is often alluded to. In general it is meant to represent the groups within society that benefit from military spending and its growth, but what is meant by it is often vague and sometimes inconsistent (Fine 1993 ). Despite being most used in critical analyses, the source of the term is more conservative. It was introduced by Dwight Eisenhower, an ex-military Republican President of the USA, who was concerned about the combined power of the large military establishment and the arms industry, which he called the military industrial complex ( Albertson 1963 ).