Waging War With Gold: National Security and the Finance Domain Across the Ages

"Timely, topical, and thought-provoking…. This is a terrific analysis of how states have tried to bend finance to their will over the ages." ―Randall Germain, Carleton University

"An important contribution to our understanding of the relationship between finance and national security, exploring how the financial sector itself offers opportunities to exert influence." ―Thomas Oatley, Tulane University

"The sinews of war," posited Cicero, "are infinite money." Can the same be said of security? Tackling this thought-provoking question, the authors of Waging War with Gold show how states across the centuries have weaponized the global finance domain―a constellation of economic, legal, and monetary relations―in order to exert influence and pursue national interests.

CONTENTS: 

• The Financial Battlespace.
• What Is the Finance Domain?
• Fiscal Strategies in Antiquity.
• Medieval Money, Markets, and Mayhem.
• The Mercantilist Revolution.
• Pax Britannica and the Gold Standard.
• From the Great War to World War II.
• Bretton Woods and the American Century.
• The Digital Revolution in Financial Affairs.
• The Next Fifty Years of Financial Competition.

Charles A. Dainoff is assistant professor of political science at the University of Idaho. Robert M. Farley is senior lecturer in the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. Geoffrey F. Williams is professor of economics at Transylvania University.