Economic Warfare and Sanctions Since 1688

Economic Warfare and Sanctions Since 1688

How have economic warfare and sanctions been applied in modern history? Under what conditions did they work?

A new book edited by leading economic historians Stephen Broadberry (University of Oxford) and Mark Harrison (University of Warwick) provides answers through case studies ranging from the eighteenth-century rivalry of Britain and France and the American Civil War to the two world wars and the Cold War.

Published by Cambridge University Press, Economic Warfare and Sanctions Since 1688 shows how countries faced with economic measures have responded by resisting, adapting to, or seeking to pre-empt an economic attack so that the effects could be delayed or temporarily neutralised. Typically, economic measures took time before they could be effective. Success depended on their reinforcement by military force or threats.

It is the first book to combine the study of economic warfare and sanctions, showing the deep similarities and continuities as well as the differences, in an integrated framework.

“Economic warfare has usually been regarded as a product of the twentieth-century total wars, but in this revealing and wide-ranging set of essays Harrison and Broadberry show that forms of economic warfare go back a long way and are still a twenty-first century reality. There is much here for policymakers as well as historians to reflect on.”

Richard Overy, author of Why War

Mark Harrison, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick says:

“Historically, economic warfare and sanctions were bound by common roots. Modern sanctions grew out of the experience of economic warfare and belief in the power of economic warfare. If economic sanctions work to similar effect by peaceful means, it was hoped they could provide a peaceful alternative to combat, avoiding the human and material costs of war.

“In practice, despite such hopes, sanctions often failed to avoid war. When war broke out, moreover, even if economic warfare was powerful, it was not all-powerful. Economic warfare alone did not win wars.”

The 18 authors included in the book investigate eight major areas of economic warfare and sanctions. They cover the Anglo-French wars of the long eighteenth century, the American Civil War, Britain versus Germany in two World Wars, the interwar sanctions on Italy, interwar sanctions followed by economic warfare against Japan, trade and technology restrictions on the Soviet bloc in the Cold War, and sanctions on the white minority regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia.

Economic sanctions have shaped the course of warfare: they moulded war plans, raised the adversary's costs of mobilisation, and tipped the balance of final outcomes. Too often, however, the effects were not those predicted. This book looks across three centuries of global history for clues to how economic sanctions and warfare worked and why their effects often came as a surprise. It is a companion volume to the authors’ previous collections on the economics of the two world wars.

About the Authors

• Stephen Broadberry is Professor of Economic History in the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford.
• Mark Harrison is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick.

Among the works co-edited and co-authored by Broadberry and Harrison are The Economics of World War I (2005) and The Economics of World War II (1998), both published by Cambridge University Press, and CEPR eBooks on The Economics of the Great War: A Centennial Perspective (2018) and The Economics of the Second World War: Seventy-five Years on (2020).

• Economic Warfare and Sanctions Since 1688 can be purchased from Cambridge University Press