The Enemy is Still Below: The Global Diffusion of Submarines and Related Technology

Weiss, K G

关键词: DIFFUSION;    GLOBALIZATION;    STABILITY;    SUBMARINES;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1048484
RP-ID  :  LLNL-TR-564211
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1048484
Others  :  TRN: US201217%%57

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

The spread of submarines and related technology is an end product of globalization. Globalization is not a new story. By one estimate, our ancestors first crossed out of Africa roughly 80,000 years ago, and began the process that they now call globalization. With the dispersion of people around the world came the development of culture and civilization as well as the spread of ideas, goods, and technology. The process of globalization then is a long-standing one, not an innovation of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Over the millennia, this process has been an uneven one. Globalization has often cuased great disruptions even to the societies that initiated various innovations in culture and civilization, including science and technology. Indeed, many cultures and civilizations have disappeared while some regions failed to advance as rapidly as others, so the process of globalization is not just one of continuing progress. Globalization in the current era seems to be penetrating the most remote corners of the world at a remarkable rate as a result of advances in science and technology, particularly information technology. The diffusion of science and technology is not necessarily a benign development. It could increase the potential for a global military industrial base that may have an adverse affect on world stability in the future. For example, the spread of key military capabilities, like submarines, could still have an impact, especially over the longer term, on the US capability to project power overseas.