First published in 1986. Based on the theme that defense procurement serves as an instrument of alliance and domestic politics, this book provides the first comprehensive analysis of post-war West German approaches to and experience with procurement strategies. Dr. Cowen explores how successive German governments have used military procurement to facilitate the rehabilitation of the new West German state and later to consolidate the German position within the alliance. The author shows that by the mid-1970s the Federal Republic had succeeded in its procurement policy, acting as a serious partner for defense projects in Europe and building a flourishing defense industry. The book's final chapters describe the structural tensions between competing procurement objectives that have recently emerged. The FRG must decide whether to continue to maintain a whole range of defense industrial capacities or to specialize nationally and purchase other necessary commodities in the United States. According to the author, national specialization is not seriously considered by the German government. Such a step, the author suggests, would diminish Germany's role in the alliance and jeopardize one of its foremost foreign policy goals: equality with Great Britain and France

Rebecca Ellis holds a PhD in Geography and Environment (2021) from Western University in London, ON, Canada. Her research project, "Pollinator People: An ethnography of bees, bee advocates and possibilities for multispecies commoning in Toronto and London, ON", examined the entangled and embodied relationship between people and urban bees. She received her BA (2008) and MA (2010) in Anthropology from Western University. Her MA research focused on the role of community gardens in a rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. Her research interests include animal geographies, political ecology, social reproduction theory, and sustainable food systems. Rebecca works as an adjunct professor at Western University and Algoma University. In addition to studying bees, agriculture, and sustainable food systems, she is a beekeeper, urban farmer, and long-time community activist.