warfare state

plural warfare states

1. the military-industrial complex, the political and economic powers that profit from military spending

   That formulation, in turn, will help to overcome part of the ideological support system of the warfare state.

   1988, Seymour Melman, The Demilitarized Society – Disarmament and Conversion, Spokesman, page 42

   1 more example

   The concept of the warfare state is often used as a convenient shorthand to denote that part of the institutional architecture of the state that is devoted to the management of the armed forces, military strategy and procurement, and defence industrial policy. [...] In the United States in particular, it has been customary for the activities of the warfare state to be discussed in terms of the notion of the ‘military-industrial complex (MIC)’ [...].

   2001, “Warfare state”, in R.J. Barry Jones, editor, Routledge Encyclopedia of International Political Economy, Routledge, page 1671

2. a state or system with high military spending, especially when it uses external conflict to increase internal stability

   In beleaguered war-time Britain, planning for social life after the conflict combined with intense feelings of democratic solidarity to spur a self-conscious sense of national pride in “the welfare state” as opposed to the Nazi “warfare state”.

   1995, Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, Harvard University Press, page 4f.