Book Discussion - The Economic Weapon

For this meeting, we'll be discussing Nicholas Mulder’s The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War. How economic sanctions went from a utopian idea after WWI to a central weapon of modern geopolitics.

Length: 434 pages | ~14 hrs audiobook

Book Description

In the wreckage of World War I, policymakers believed that cutting off an enemy’s access to trade and finance could prevent future wars. Historian Nicholas Mulder traces how this vision of “peaceful pressure” evolved into one of the most powerful and controversial tools of statecraft. He explores the League of Nations’ early experiments, the devastating humanitarian toll in places like Greece and Spain, and how sanctions shaped the path to World War II. The book shows how a tool designed to avoid war became one of the defining instruments of modern conflict.

Book talk by author: Princeton University on Wed, Apr 6, 2022