ECONOMIC WARFARE

the use by a government of economic, as distinguished from military, measures in international conflict. Such measures include various export and import controls, trade agreements with neutral nations, shipping controls, blacklisting, the blocking of enemy exports, and preemption or preclusive buying. Economic warfare may also be defined broadly to include all measures undertaken to increase the economic power of a country at the expense of other countries. Economic warfare among belligerents began with blockade and the interception of contraband. During World War II economic warfare was broadened to include bringing pressure to bear upon neutral countries from which the enemy obtained its supplies. Economic warfare continued after World War II as part of Cold War tactics to deny potential enemies goods that might contribute to their war-making ability. One of the primary measures during this period was the embargo, sometimes total and sometimes restricted to strategic goods. During the 1950s the United States and other countries maintained an embargo against the Soviet Union and eastern Europe on a large list of broadly defined strategic goods. Economic warfare may also include measures by one nation to ensure the economic dependence of another and thereby obtain political power over it. These measures may include monopolizing the supply of certain goods or guaranteeing a market for the weaker country's exports. Economic warfare is likely to be more effective in the short run, because, over time, the enemy country has a chance to pursue alternatives. The enemy may even benefit, as in the case of an embargoed country that develops its own substitutes for embargoed goods and thereby strengthens its independence.