Evolution in pre- and post-WWI perspectives on economic warfare

The study of the First World War has a history that spans over a century. Traditionally, researchers have primarily concentrated on diplomatic, military-strategic, and operational aspects of the war. In contrast, the economic dimensions of warfare have long been somewhat overlooked. In the 1920s and 1930s, legal scholars, historians, economists, and military experts began to explore the relationship between the economic capabilities of the warring parties and the efforts made by these nations to reorganize their national economies to meet wartime demands. This interest was evident in Russian, British, and American academic literature. This article aims to investigate the evolution of ideas surrounding economic warfare, the varying assessments of its effectiveness and legality, its consequences, the concept itself, and the appropriateness of this dimension of confrontation within the framework of Russian and English-language literature. The analysis of texts from the late XIX century through the first third of the XX century reveals significant variations in how economic warfare was interpreted and practiced. A notable feature among English-language authors was their particular focus on maritime trade during wartime and the effectiveness of the blockade of Germany. British authors reached an unspoken consensus on the importance of the economic front, viewing it as equally significant as the military fronts. American scholars tended to frame the United States as a wronged party, while embracing its role of the sole defender of a just world order and the rights of neutral nations as early as 1915. In contrast, Russian literature in the early XX century and during the initial years of the war primarily emphasized the economic potential of Russia. However, by the 1920s and 1930s, a new generation of experts demonstrated the critical importance of economic warfare, offering definitions and establishing methods and objectives for this type of conflict. They also described the risks associated with economic warfare and the strategic decisions needed to mitigate the potential threat of a naval blockade facing the Soviet state in anticipation of an inevitable future conflict.