The role of the military imperative in science is here examined. The historical drives of nation states to defend themselves, or to transmute defence into offence, have been a consistently compulsive and political factor since at least the European Renaissance. Here the manifold aspects of the military factor are reviewed, including the rare occasions when improved weapons technology was spurned, the drive for mass production of arms, chemical warfare, the economic and political power of the arms bazaar, export control of arms and finally the efforts to achieve disarmament.
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References
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