The Economic Weapon

In this intriguing study, Cornell University assistant professor Nicholas Mulder traces the use of peacetime sanctions from their origins as deliberate wartime weapons to their current phase as a geopolitical deterrent. He ably examines their efficacy — or lack of it — in modern-day use.

Economic Sanctions

Throughout geopolitical history up to and through World War I, warring nations wielded economic sanctions as weapons. At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, French and British representatives championed deploying economic sanctions as a means of active diplomacy during peacetime. Their suggestion — at the time, a radical one — was that a belligerent nation could be brought to heel by financial punishment rather than military hostilities.