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Planned International Technology Transfer:
Author(s) -
Thompson Chris
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
digest of middle east studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.225
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1949-3606
pISSN - 1060-4367
DOI - 10.1111/j.1949-3606.1994.tb00496.x
Subject(s) - technology transfer , offset (computer science) , political science , international trade , operations research , operations management , business , engineering , computer science , programming language
Since the mid‐1980s, Saudi Arabia has required that a percentage of all defense contracts awarded to foreign suppliers be reinvested back in the kingdom into new technology companies. The result has been three “economic offset” programs, encompassing Western defense producers and their home‐country governments in the world's largest example of planned international technology transfer. This paper reviews the three main Saudi offsets—attached to the Peace Shield (United States), al‐Yamamah (United Kingdom) and Sawari (France) arms deals—for their genesis, operations, achievements, and problems, using interviews with participants and statistical data on companies formed. It then attempts some evaluation of them against their own original explicit and implicit goals, and draws out some lessons and implications.