The National Security State and the Tech City: Social Structures of Militarisation in Seattle's Long Cold War

Abstract

Integration between the American state and technology capital has deep roots in the military-industrial complex that has structured the US geopolitical economy since World War II. This article makes the case for understanding the urban-regional dimensions of technology capital in terms of a transformation of, rather than as a departure from, Cold War geopolitics. It introduces the concept of a social structure of militarisation to analyse the transition from military-Keynesianism to tech-oriented militarism, developing this concept through a case study of high-tech firms in the Seattle region. Our analysis shows how the class dynamics that underpinned the growth of Seattle's “high-tech” aerospace sector in the postwar period conditioned the subsequent growth of the information and biotechnology sectors. Like other tech cities, Seattle's economy remains a privileged site of technical and managerial labour within the extended US national security state.