No. 19

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A Small Country’s Security Sector as an Engine of Innovation

18 June 2009

Studies

RiTo No. 19, 2009

  • Lauri Tabur

    Research and Development Director, Public Service Academy; Ph.D. student in innovation policy, Tallinn University of Technology

In transition countries such as Estonia, solely the vaunted open economy and foreign investments do not automatically engender a broader transformation of industrial structure from mass production toward greater knowledge and skills.

At the same time, many policies that determine the direction of Estonia’s development have, at least in words, confirmed their readiness to be open to progressive developments taking place in the world – novel aspects of social order (civic society, for instance) and the development of information and communications technologies. This rhetoric is largely based on the evaluations from international organizations that deal in development scenarios, which forecast a technological and economic revolution spanning 10-20 years in information, bio- and nanotechnology and cognition that will thoroughly transform all walks of life and offer many new and more rapid economic growth opportunities than any other science and technology field. In a certain sense, information, bio and nanotechnology represent horizontal technologies that allow a significant increase in productivity in all walks of life and economic sectors. It is not necessary to possess deep knowledge of the security sector or a relevant field of technology to find strong areas of potential for implementation of new technologies in the state security sector. Rather, the reason for development taking place separately in each field is a lack of awareness of what other fields have to offer. Thus the first step the security sector could take in support of the technological development should be to create a substantive dialogue between partners.

Full article in Estonian

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