Technology Preferences of Five Western Style Democracies: An Analysis of Security Policy Technology Strategies

The sampling for the analysis considered the most relevant actors in the military technology domain. This follows the logic that actors with significant military expenditure, considerable (increase in) armament exports, and those who possess nuclear weapons are relevant to the innovation and development of military technology. To sample countries that have those characteristics, data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute covering arms exports and transfer was used. A list of 24 states was compiled following the most recent relevant publications: Trends in international arms transfer, 2024 (SIPRI, 2025a) and Trends in military expenditure, 2024 (SIPRI, 2025b), plus the list of states commanding nuclear weapons from the Arms Control Association (2025). Considering the scope and aims of the monitor, five states were picked out of the sampling for further analysis: Australia, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. These states were chosen because, for once, they represent a (more or less) globally distributed sample and because they are states in close cooperation with each other. The choice was further warranted by a key aim of the study, which was to  what kind of different technology preferences exist, even within security alliances. The strategy documents that were analysed—10 in total—represent the most recent 2 documents of each state; national strategies with a technological focus that discuss the innovation, and research and development of military capabilities. This includes strategies that discuss science and technology aims for single domains. However, in order to focus on understanding technological portfolios the selection excluded defence strategies that deal with particular technologies or their operational details. Additional strategies focusing on organisational and managerial innovation in the defence industry were also excluded. To obtain data from the strategies, the documents were coded by different coders using MAXQDA 2024 Pro software. The coding relied on a scheme designed iteratively over several months, comprising categories that organised technologies according to their functional characteristics. These groupings also included several subcategories utilised in the actual coding. The result was a total of 19 categories encompassing 135 distinct technological subcategories. The collected data were subsequently examined using descriptive statistics that afforded the analysis.

Arms Control Association. (2025). Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What at a Glance. Fact Sheets and Briefs. www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/nuclear-weapons-who-has-what-glance

SIPRI. (2025a). Trends in international arms transfers, 2024. SIPRI Fact Sheet. www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2025-03/fs_2503_at_2024_0.pdf

SIPRI. (2025b).  Trends in military expenditure, 2024. SIPRI Fact Sheet. www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2025-04/2504_fs_milex_2024.pdf