Trade Wars

Trade Wars looks at five centuries of disputes over trade, some fought with weapons and others without. Nils Ole Oermann and Hans-Jürgen Wolff, drawing on decades of experience, examine what drives these conflicts and the tools states use to pursue them, including trade wars, economic sanctions and other forms of economic warfare.

The authors look at the history of these confrontations, the ethical questions they raise, the economic forces behind them and whether they fit within current international rules. Readers also get an introduction to the economics of trade and a survey of trade and financial policy from the nineteenth century onward. A central question is how well sanctions work and whether a trade war can realistically be won.

The book also tracks how economic warfare has changed since 1989, with attention to cyberspace and the global financial system. It examines how China's rise tests the Western pairing of democratic government and free-market economies.

The closing chapter argues for more deliberate use of economic statecraft by governments and for a thorough rethinking of the present trading system.