Defence Offsets: A System-Level View

Joanna Spear

Archive data: Person was Visiting Fellow at IDSA Dr Joanna (Jo) Spear is an Associate Professor of International Affairs and Director of the Security Policy Studies Program at the George… Continue reading Defence Offsets: A System-Level View read more

How effective are offsets as a means to boost a domestic defence industry? This article takes a novel approach to answering this question; examining global data on levels of defence sales over three decades as a measure of successful defence industrialisation (i.e., using the market as an indicator of success). The quantitative data points to a mixed picture as despite the ubiquity of defence offsets, they are no guarantees of success in defence industrialisation. It concludes that offsets can be an important part of a defence industrialisation strategy, but are not in themselves sufficient for success.