US Economic Statecraft for Survival, 1933-1991

How have US economic defence policies promoted its security since 1933? This study concentrates on an important and neglected facet of America's fight for survival in the latter half of the 20th century. It explains how US policy-makers crafted and used instruments of economic statecraft against states that posed vital threats to the survival of the USA. This study situates economic defence policy within the broad context of US foreign policy and explores its response to the totalitarianism of the 1930s, World War II and the complex strategic and political developments of the Cold War. Dobson charts an extraordinary change in US policy, from its defence of neutral rights to trade in wartime to its denial of trade to prospective enemies in peacetime. From this explanation of how it developed and evolved over the years there emerges a new perspective. This study emphasizes the importance that economic instruments of statecraft have for symbolic, communication, and political bargaining objectives. Economic instruments of statecraft are more important for what they say than what they do in an instrumental sense. Without being aware of these factors it is not possible to give a credible

'...a masterful account of how economic security policy intertwined with national defense, diplomacy, and domestic politics. He offers the definitive study on economic warfare of the era but also one that will be discussed and even contested for years.' Professor Tom Zeiler, University of Colorado at Boulder'Dobson's book, the first comprehensive survey of US economic defence policy between 1931 and 1991, is not only an enormous research effort but also an original, intelligent and timely historical perspective on American politics and foreign policy in this century.' Alan Milward, University of Oxford'This book is a definitive study of America's economic statecraft during the Cold War.' - Journal of American Studies