Russia's military-industrial complex in transition: Elite attitudes about defense conversion and arms transfers

After the end of the Cold War most of the countries in the world have initiated and completed wide-scope defense conversion programs for diminishing the military output at the expense of the civilian production increase. However, despite its officially adopted conversion programs, the Russian Federation converts very slowly its huge military-industrial complex (MIC) and attempts to launch more and more aggressive weapons sales strategies.; How do Russia's MIC elites view defense industry conversion? What are the major factors for the successful implementation of the defense conversion policies in Russia's MIC? How do the elites view the role of arms exports?; Defense industry conversion has proved to be a complex process of politico-economic restructuring that is highly dependent on resources, mainly for investment. This research proves using an open-system contingency model that the current failure and the possible future success of the conversion of Russia's MIC is highly dependent on the availability of resources.; In addition, based on the Russia's needs for conversion resources, the country's export potential as well as the absorption capacity of today's international arms market, this study proves that augmenting Russia's arms exports will not provide financial resources for conversion, contrary to the popular opinion among top Russian politicians and defense managers.; This research demonstrates why it is necessary to study the issues of arms transfers in a close and immediate relationship with the policies of defense industry restructuring and conversion.; The study proves the validity of the open system resource-dependence model based on the qualitative analysis of elite attitudes for examining Russia's defense conversion and arms transfer policies. It shows the applicability of the qualitative research in general, and the case study and concrete theory methods in particular.