Defending apartheid: Armscor and the geography of military production in South Africa

Militarisation in South Africa is examined through a study of the development, organization and geography of military production. The rise of Armscor as a significant military-industrial enterprise is disclosed at the heart of the post-1960 growth of armaments production in South Africa. Despite intensifying arms embargoes, military industrialization in South Africa has attained a degree of self-sufficiency. Military production is analysed as a powerful implicit spatial policy shaping the South African space economy favouring in particular the development of the core metropolitan areas, most importantly the Johannesburg-Pretoria axis.