Economic Warfare: Strategies and Tactics in the Battle for Global Influence

By Fouad Sabry

What is Economic Warfare

Economic warfare or economic war is an economic strategy utilized by belligerent nations with the goal of weakening the economy of other states. This is primarily achieved by the use of economic blockades. Ravaging the crops of the enemy is a classic method, used for thousands of years.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Economic warfare

Chapter 2: Agent Orange

Chapter 3: Confederate States of America

Chapter 4: Operation Ranch Hand

Chapter 5: Blockade

Chapter 6: Economic sanctions

Chapter 7: Canadian-American Reciprocity Treaty

Chapter 8: Blockade runner

Chapter 9: Defoliant

Chapter 10: Cotton diplomacy

(II) Answering the public top questions about economic warfare.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Economic Warfare.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: May 27, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Economic warfare

Economic warfare, often known as economic war, is a tactic used by belligerent governments to undermine the economies of other states. Economic blockades are the main method used to do this. The practice of destroying the enemy's crops has been around for thousands of years.

Economic warfare in military operations can refer to the economic strategy used in open or covert operations, cyber operations, or information operations during or before a war. The goal of economic warfare is to seize or otherwise control the flow of vital economic resources so that friendly forces can use them and the enemy cannot.

Total war, which includes both mobilized war-economies and adversary countries' military forces, is where the concept of economic warfare is most useful. In this scenario, harming an enemy's economy also harms that enemy's capacity to wage war. Policies like scorched-earth could prevent an enemy invasion by denying resources.

Blockade, blacklisting, prohibitive purchasing, rewards, and the seizure or control of adversary assets or supply lines are only a few examples of the strategies and tactics used in economic warfare. Economic warfare is a term that can be used for combat that is not armed.

Fidentius of Padua outlines guidelines for economic warfare to be used against the Mamluk sultanate of Egypt in order to advance the Crusades in his Book on the Recovery of the Holy Land. He plans to impose an embargo on trade between Europe and Egypt with a fleet of 40–50 galleys. According to him, this trade benefits Egypt in two ways: from Europe, it receives war supplies (such as iron, tin, lumber, and oil); and from Asia, it receives taxes on items imported across the Red Sea for trade with Europe. Egypt would not be subject to customs taxes and would also lose export markets due to the decrease in shipping if this spice trade was diverted from the Red Sea to Mongol Persia. Additionally, this might prevent it from affording to acquire more slave soldiers from the Black Sea.

The 11 Confederate states, a huge area larger than Western Europe, were a challenge for Union soldiers during the American Civil War. Unexpectedly, the Confederate economy was fragile.

In 1861, there were 297 towns and cities in the Confederacy, with a total population of 835,000, of which 162 were at one stage occupied by Union soldiers, with a total population of 681,000. Infrastructure was almost always harmed, and trade and economic activities were temporarily halted. Eleven cities, including Atlanta, Charleston, Columbia, and Richmond, suffered significant damage as a result of the conflict. Smaller towns suffered damage at a significantly slower pace, with only 45 out of 830 suffering severe damage.

The British imposed a strict blockade on Germany and closely watched shipments to neutral nations to stop them from being transshipped there using their far superior Royal Navy. Due to a lack of available food in Germany due to the young farmers all enlisting in the military, the starving Germans began eating turnips in the winter of 1916–17.

During World War II, the Allied powers used such tactics to deny the Axis economy of vital supplies, providing clear examples of economic warfare. Despite having far more difficulty than in 1914, the British Royal Navy once more blockaded Germany. The US Navy, particularly its submarines, stopped sending food and oil to Japan.

By sinking transport ships bringing supplies, raw materials, and vital war-related goods like food and oil, Germany aimed to harm the Allied war effort in turn. As the Allied air forces expanded, they launched a campaign known as Oil in order to deny Germany access to fuel.

Both sides continue to conduct business with neutral nations. The allies tried other methods to halt supplies to Germany of vital minerals including tungsten, chromium, mercury, and iron ore from Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Sweden, and other countries as the Royal Navy was unable to disrupt land traffic.

Herbicides and defoliants were used by the British military during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) to rid the Malaysian countryside (including agriculture fields) of Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) insurgents and flush them out of the jungle. Trioxone was a component of the herbicide Agent Orange employed by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, and it was also present in the herbicides and defoliants used by the British. Herbicides and defoliants were used to degrade crop fields in areas where the MNLA was active in order to deprive them of potential supplies of food while also diminishing forest pathways to prevent ambushes. Aircraft from the Royal Air Force (RAF) were also used to spray herbicides and defoliants.

The director of the Economic Warfare School in Paris, Christian Harbulot, presents a historical reconstruction of the economic power relations between states. He shows in his research that the notion of economic warfare is the only way to understand the tactics states use to strengthen their economic might and how they affect the global balance of power.

Economic sanctions were thought to be a major innovation at the time, and the League of Nations Covenant called for both military and economic sanctions against aggressor governments. However, economic sanctions alone were ineffective in stopping Italy from occupying Abysinia.

The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, Japan, and other industrialized countries that backed Israel during the Yom Kippur War of October 1973 were subject to an Arab oil embargo from 1973 to 1974. The 1973 oil crisis and a dramatic increase in prices were among the outcomes, but support for Israel did not disappear.

The United States has imposed numerous sanctions since the middle of the 20th century.

Embargo imposed by the US against Cuba

Act to Counter America's Enemies Through Sanctions

penalties for North Korea

The term fortress economics or a fortress economy refers to the defense and maintenance of a nation's economy in the face of international sanctions.

{End Chapter 1}

Chapter 2: Agent Orange

Chemical pesticide and defoliant Agent Orange is one of the tactical uses Spectrum Herbicides.

It was used by the American military as part of Operation Ranch Hand, a herbicide warfare operation. Many people exposed to it and their progeny have had severe health issues.

In addition to being used in industrial agriculture, Agent Orange was also sprayed over railroads and power lines to manage undergrowth in forests. It was first developed in the United States in the late 1940s. The American military purchased roughly 20 million gallons (75 million liters) of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T that was 50/50 polluted with dioxins during the Vietnam War. It was made by nine different chemical companies: Dow Chemical, Monsanto, Diamond Shamrock, Hercules, Thompson Hayward, United States Rubber (Uniroyal), Thompson Chemical, Hoffman-Taff Chemicals, Inc., and Agriselect.

Numerous legal cases were brought as a result of the usage of Agent Orange in Vietnam. The Environmental Modification Convention and Resolution 31/72 of the UNGA were ratified by the UN. Veterans from both the United States and Vietnam filed lawsuits in an effort to recover damages.

During the Malayan