Defense Conversion Initiative: An examination of societal forces and organizational culture that contribute to failure

This study is an analytical examination of the failure of the Defense Conversion Initiative. Principal forces and cultural influences that contribute to failure are addressed. Defense conversion is an all-encompassing term including: community economic adjustment to defense cutbacks and downsizing; industrial defense plant conversion to and diversification from civil sector work; retraining of laid-off defense workers; training in modern manufacturing technology for redundant defense firms usually at the lower-tier supplier level; transferring defense technology to non-defense businesses; transformation of the isolated defense industry into an integrated civil/military industrial base; and shifting defense research and development investments to focus on dual-use products and process technologies.;The hypothesis of this study is that the Defense Conversion Initiative will fail in its objectives and the result will be that the United States will continue defense expenditures at a wartime level eliminating the benefits of a peace dividend. The reason for failure is that three entities: the defense industry, members of Congress, and the Military Industrial Complex acted in a manner to maintain a permanent wartime economy, therein thwarting defense conversion efforts.;The design of the study has two objectives: a comprehensive review of the literature concerning events and forces that led the United States to accept large military peace time expenditure in the 1980's, the subsequent need for large reduction in those expenditures, also how and why the affected entities reacted. Also a review comprehensive enough to minimize the author's prejudices formed during over thirty years of military and defense industry experience.;A review of the previous studies focused on a broader review of the impact of the reduction in the defense budget that brought about the Defense Conversion Initiative. Four previous studies are examined in the literature review.;The author's completion of the research partially supports the hypothesis that that DCI will fail and that the United States will remain on a wartime economy. The literature does not support the assertion that the three identified entities caused the failure of DCI but rather, the electorate, through our elected representative determines defense expenditure levels. The author concluded that the electorate as a whole is the Military Industrial Complex.