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Power Problems • January 9, 2024 

# Arms, Influence, and the Military Industrial Complex 

William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft explains the problem of retired military brass working for the arms industry and how this revolving door tends to militarize U.S. foreign policy. He also discusses China’s military buildup and why it shouldn’t automatically translate to bigger U.S. defense budgets. Other topics include the military industrial complex, Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, the Pentagon’s inability to pass an audit, and threat inflation, among others.

**Show Notes**

- William Hartung and Dillon Fisher, “[March of the Four-Stars: The Role of Retired Generals and Admirals in the Arms Industry](https://quincyinst.org/report/march-of-the-four-stars-the-role-of-retired-generals-and-admirals-in-the-arms-industry/), ” Quincy Brief No. 47, October 4, 2023.
- William Hartung, “[Reality Check: Chinese Military Spending in Context](https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2023/Hartung-%20Chinese%20Military%20Spending%20in%20Context.docx.pdf),” Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute, December 5, 2023.
- William Hartung, “[Good Times for the Military Industrial Complex](https://tomdispatch.com/good-times-for-the-military-industrial-complex/),” TomDis​patch​.com, November 12, 2023.

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This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

##### William D. Hartung 

Senior Research Fellow, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

![John Glaser](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/John%20Glaser.jpg?itok=-uvxR8zG) 

##### John Glaser 

Host, Power Problems Podcast

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](https://twitter.com/jwcglaser)