2025/08 | LEM Working Paper Series | ||||||||||||||||
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Digital technologies: civilian vs. military trajectories |
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Dario Guarascio and Mario Pianta |
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Keywords | |||||||||||||||||
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digital technologies, technological trajectories, military programs
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JEL Classifications | |||||||||||||||||
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O30, O33, 038
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Abstract | |||||||||||||||||
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The article examines the evolution of the current technological
paradigm, based on digital technologies, considering the interaction
between civilian and military trajectories, with a focus on the US
case. Building on an original political economy framework, the
activities of corporations and the industrial and technology policies
of the US government are examined. The evolution of digital
technologies and the rise of major US corporations - Alphabet, Amazon,
Apple, Meta, Microsoft - is investigated, showing that their platform
business model is characterised by monopoly power, management of Big
Data and major capabilities of control, surveillance and targeting. A
civilian trajectory - with large commercial markets and a novel reach
in several areas of social activities - has dominated the rise of
digital technologies. Its key characteristics, however, have become of
major interest for military priorities. The analysis of recent US
industrial and technology policies for the military shows that they
have expanded the involvement of US digital corporations in arms and
security programmes, developed large defense R&D projects in digital
areas, and shaped a new convergence between civilian and military
trajectories. The outcome we are facing is therefore the emergence of
a digital-military-industrial complex - a major and problematic
novelty in a digital age that had grown out of a civilian trajectory.
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