Economic militarism is a process whereby economic activity is manipulated to assist in gaining military advantages.
An example sometimes used is certain Asian countries who allegedly promote the expansion of physical and scientific industries at the expense of more "social" industries, such as marketing, financing, and entertainment.
This can create a conundrum for governments because they may have to choose between a laissez-faire approach which should generate more total funds, or focusing on industries which help more directly with military goals in order to compete with such techniques. The enemy's subsidizing of physical industries may lead to an unnatural tilt toward social industries, perhaps leaving such a country more vulnerable. (If the other country subsidizes a given field, then that field can no longer stand on its own profits, and thus will either go under, or transform to a different business unless also subsidized to match.)
Militarization is the "gradual encroachment of the military institution into the civilian arena," including, for example, industrial plants becoming dependent on military contracts or the state relying on the military to solve its unemployment problems.
Therefore it is essential that feminists examine militarism and challenge it as one of the root causes of women's oppression and equally necessary that peace activists examine and challenge patriarchy as one of the root causes of militarism.
In addition to militarism's reinforcement of the gender categories which restrict women's lives and perpetuate their marginalization, there are material ways in which militarism has a gendered affect and has a different impact on women than it does on men, both in "peacetime" and in war.
Militarism is not a precise term and its definition may depend on one's ideology or point of view, and one's judgment of it may be determined by its extent and form.
Militarism or militarist ideology is the doctrinal view of a society as being best served (or more efficient) when it is governed or guided by concepts embodied in the culture, doctrine, system, or people of the military.
Militarism is ideologically rooted in or related to concepts of alarmism, communism, expansionism, extremism, fascism, imperialism, loyalism, nationalism, patriotism, protectionism, supremacy, totalitarianism, triumphalism and warmongering.
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