Economic conversion

During the '50s, Western citizens and policymakers were impressed by the extensive impact on everyday life of civilian applications derived from military technologies, which were developed during the last years of the World War II.

[1] Conversion (Russian: Конверсия — Konversiya) became a deliberate economic strategy of Mikhail Gorbachev in the final years of the Soviet Union, as he pursued large decreases in military spending.

[3] Since the beginning of the Clinton's presidency in 1993, the American hi-tech companies were allowed to export a wide range of their products all over the world without prior Government approval.

The new trade policies fostered the interchange with China, but ignored their long-term impact for national security and the need of intelligence agencies and government officials to track how those technologies were effectively used and to avoid them be improperly diverted to terrorista or frign military uses.

In modern times, a key figure in promoting the idea of economic conversion was the late Seymour Melman (1917–2004), a professor at Columbia University in the United States.

In recent times, the idea has also been promoted by various scholars and activists, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s, in Europe, the United States, Israel and South Africa.

Extensive political barriers suggest that conversion promotion requires various forms of institutional transformation and social movement mobilization.

To be successful, conversion must be part of a larger political program involving, military budget reductions, reindustrialization, and infrastructure renewal.