Economic Warfare in Modern History conference held at Warwick-in-Venice

CAGE was pleased to support a conference on Economic Warfare in Modern History under the auspices of Warwick in Venice at the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin on Saturday and Sunday 27 and 28 January 2024.

The conference, organized by CAGE associates Stephen Broadberry (Oxford) and Mark Harrison (Warwick), brought together a multi-national group of scholars of the economic history of conflict, including Mattia Bertazzini (Nottingham), Guillaume Daudin (Paris), Jari Eloranta (Helsinki), Leigh Gardner (LSE), Walker Hanlon (Northwestern), Tetsuji Okazaki (Tokyo), Albrecht Ritschl (LSE), Hugh Rockoff (Rutgers), Tamas Vonyo (Bocconi), and Hans-Joachim Voth (Zurich).

The group was joined by the eminent historian of twentieth century warfare Richard Overy, and the economic historian and writer Duncan Weldon, who acted as commentators. Weldon is also a member of the CAGE advisory board.

Topics under discussion ranged from the eighteenth-century wars between Britain and France and the American Civil War through the world wars of the first half of the twentieth century to the post-war international sanctions against communist countries and the white minority regimes of Southern Africa.

The outcome of the conference will be an edited volume of essays to be published in 2025 by Cambridge University Press.

After the meeting Broadberry and Harrison said:

“In recent years, sadly, sanctions and economic warfare have been moving up the global agenda. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. We believe that the study of three hundred years of history will yield new insights that can help to shape the public discourse.”