Perpetual War and the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex: The Iran Factor

According to realist scholar Hans Morgenthau, if you win a war, you should be more cautious and focus on your power; otherwise, you will weaken without knowing when it happened. The same mantra is prevalent in the United States’ ideology: it always goes for pre-emptive preparation. This article explains how the American military-industrial complex (MIC) governance works and perpetuates war everywhere for its purpose.

The United States MIC is composed of three departments: The Department of Defence, which comes with lucrative orders of weapons sales, the second one is the Defence Industries, which prepares military ammunition, and the third is the White House, which frames the situation where to generate a new war to benefit its weapons industries. This complex has shaped US foreign policy and military strategy, leading to ultimate global influence and numerous conflicts over the past century.

President Eisenhower, in his farewell address, popularised the term in 1961, saying that while wars undoubtedly bring immense destruction and suffering, they have also generated substantial profits for certain American companies, fueling a cycle of conflicts and economic gains. The story of World War II and the rise of the USA as a superpower on the world stage transformed its economic might in defence industries by winning World War 2 by supporting Europe initially and then joining it. This case prevailed in the Cold War also through proxy war to deter the USSR by selling weapons to countries to protect its capitalist ideological system. In that phase, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Dynamics emerged as powerful ammunition companies in the vast US markets.

After the breakdown of the USSR, the World witnessed only Liberal Internationalism and the uni-polarity of the World. It was time for the United States to shift towards a peaceful era, but such defence companies strengthened themselves so much that they started bullying government officials. After this, defence companies constantly take advantage of different contracts with already war-torn regions, which bear the cost of the Cold War in a proxy war. The prominent election campaign donors are these companies that want to elect leaders who favour conflict generation. Defence companies spend millions of dollars annually lobbying politicians and contributing to political campaigns. For every dollar spent on lobbying, these companies earned an estimated 1813 dollars in different Pentagon contracts. The former US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin (2021-25), a military officer and then a Raytheon Board member, was brought to the position of Secretary of State by the Raytheon defence company to benefit its ammunition interests.

The disillusionment point here is that the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) comes to mind whenever we think about the US security agencies. However, there are 18 security intelligence agencies functioning in the US. Hundreds of billions of dollars flow each year from the budget to these agencies and contractors who are incentivised to keep the country on a war footing. The estimated Black Budget is 53 billion dollars, about which the public has no idea where it goes. These intelligence agencies employ 107,035 employees, and these people are apart from the over one million people employed by the military and national security law enforcement agencies.

Through its arms exports, the United States expands its military posture worldwide. Through a realist lens, every country demands prosperity and security. The United States provided this security by acquiring access to any country by building its military bases worldwide. First, the military influence in the form of NATO alliance in Europe and then all over the World like in East Asia (South Korea, Japan, Guam), Europe (Germany, Italy), Middle East(Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, KSA), Africa(Djibouti), Diego Garcia in Indian Ocean, Australia, even in every continent and ocean, it expanded its military might.

According to the Costs of War Project report at Brown University, the US provided 17.9 billion dollars in military assistance to Israel from October 2023 to October 2024 in one year. There is also a reason behind Donald Trump pulling out from the JCPOA in 2018, which was the purpose of creating a security vacuum in the case of Iran, as the other Middle Eastern countries consider Iran a threat, due to which they can sign a military pact with the US government. Saudi Arabia and the US government’s recent $600 billion deal was in this backdrop.

In short, MIC is a dominant player within the US economy, and each new conflict effectively creates a fresh market for its products, which ensures continuous revenue generation.