Defense-Industrial Globalization and the Northeast Asian Varieties of Fighter-Jet Industry: Debating the Exogenous-Endogenous Factors in Determining the Northeast Asian Varieties of F-35 JSF Acquisition Patterns

In observation of the first US multilateral collaborative program in advanced fighter-jet production, the F-35 JSF, I analyze the implications of the so-called defense-industrial globalization phenomenon for the Northeast Asian region by examining the fighter-jet acquisition patterns of South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. I explore the applicability of the Varieties of Defense-Industrial Capitalism (VoDC) model, put forth by Marc R. Devore, which places emphasis on endogenous-institutionalist factors in projecting the adaptation patterns of states to defense-industrial globalization. By revealing theoretical and empirical limitations of the VoDC model when applied to Northeast Asia’s fighter-jet industry, I argue that the Northeast Asian varieties of paths are a complex outcome of not only their endogenous settings but also US exogenous influence on the region. I also show that Devore’s institutionalist and liberalist thesis on defense-industrial globalization does not hold for the cutting-edge fighter-jet industry where the first-tier states continue to be restrictive in their technology transfers, influencing the fighter-jet acquisition patterns of the three Northeast Asian states.