Geo-economics and Power Politics in the 21st Century

The Revival of Economic Statecraft

Mikael Wigell, Sören Scholvin, Mika Aaltola, Mikael Wigell, Sören Scholvin, Mika Aaltola

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351172264
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Economic Theory
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Starting from the key concept of geo-economics, this book investigates the new power politics and argues that the changing structural features of the contemporary international system are recasting the strategic imperatives of foreign policy practice.

States increasingly practice power politics by economic means. Whether it is about Iran's nuclear programme or Russia's annexation of Crimea, Western states prefer economic sanctions to military force. Most rising powers have also become cunning agents of economic statecraft. China, for instance, is using finance, investment and trade as means to gain strategic influence and embed its global rise. Yet the way states use economic power to pursue strategic aims remains an understudied topic in International Political Economy and International Relations. The contributions to this volume assess geo-economics as a form of power politics. They show how power and security are no longer simply coupled to the physical control of territory by military means, but also to commanding and manipulating the economic binds that are decisive in today's globalised and highly interconnected world. Indeed, as the volume shows, the ability to wield economic power forms an essential means in the foreign policies of major powers. In so doing, the book challenges simplistic accounts of a return to traditional, military-driven geopolitics, while not succumbing to any unfounded idealism based on the supposedly stabilising effects of interdependence on international relations. As such, it advances our understanding of geo-economics as a strategic practice and as an innovative and timely analytical approach.

This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, international political economy, foreign policy and International Relations in general.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Seriestitle
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• 1 Geo-economic power politics: an introduction
• 2 Geo-economics as a dimension of grand strategy: notes on the concept and its evolution
• 3 Interdependence as dependence: economic security in the age of global interconnectedness
• 4 Critical infrastructure in geostrategic competition: comparing the US and Chinese Silk Road projects
• 5 Germany’s liberal geo-economics: using markets for strategic objectives
• 6 The Russian ‘pivot’ to Asia-Pacific: geo-economic expectations and disappointments
• 7 US grand strategy in flux: geo-economics, geopolitics and the liberal international order
• 8 Leverage of economic sanctions: the case of US sanctions against Iran, 1979–2016
• 9 Energy and the future of US primacy: the geostrategic consequences of the shale revolution
• 10 Learning geo-economics: China’s experimental path towards financial and monetary leadership
• 11 Development lending as financial statecraft? A comparative exploration of the practices of China and Japan
• 12 China’s economic statecraft in Latin America: geostrategic implications for the United States
• 13 Oil as a strategic means in Venezuela’s foreign policy: the cases of ALBA and Petrocaribe, 1998–2013
• 14 India, Pakistan and the contest for regional hegemony: the role of geo-economics
• 15 Geo-economics and geopolitics in sub-Saharan African power politics
• 16 Conclusion
• Index
• Back Cover