THE DEFINITION AND THE WEAPONS OF ECONOMIC WARFARE
THE term "economic warfare" is generally used in war- time to mean the economic phase of the total war strategy. Its principal aim is to weaken the economic system and economic machinery of the enemy by cutting off supplies of raw materials, food, and other important com- modities. But "economic warfare" has also been widely used recently to express the requirements of war and their impact on the national economy; here are involved the organizing and reinforcing of the country's own supply system, in addi- tion to the effort to reduce the economic resources and ma- chinery of the enemy. In this sense we can distinguish both "constructive" and "destructive" economic warfare. 1
In the following, however, we shall employ the term "economic warfare" to cover only the latter, i.e. the system of measures designed to lessen the economic strength of the enemy, 2 especially by preventing him from getting supplies of important commodities.
Economic, or commercial, warfare has been used in various forms and for various purposes even during peacetime. Its principal instruments are prohibitive or punitive customs duties, denunciation of commercial agreements, anti-dumping measures, and many other steps taken to reduce or hamper foreign trade (for example, the manifold veterinary regulations which are in effect equivalent to a prohibition of imports). The purposes of such warfare have often been economic, as between Czechoslovakia and Hungary after 1930; but occasionally its aims have been political, as when Austria- Hungary attempted in the period before 1914 to impose a particular trade policy on Serbia.
The purpose of the economic sanctions declared by the League of Nations was more political. There was a substantial hope that the threat of economic and financial sanc- tions imposed collectively might prevent military aggression. According to Article XVI of the League of Nations Covenant, if a member of the League violates the obligations of Article XII, XIII, or XV, it is to be considered as having committed an act of war against all members of the League; the other members are then obliged to break off all commercial relations with the aggressor. At the demand of Abyssinia, the League Assembly on October 11, 1935, declared that Italy had incurred the penalty provided in Article XVI, and announced a list of economic and financial sanc-
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Publication Information: Book Title: Introduction to War Economics. Contributors: Alfred C. Neal - editor, Antonín Basch - editor, Willard C. Beatty - editor, Chelcie C. Bosland - editor, Hugh B. Killough - editor, Kenyon E. Poole - editor, Merton P. Stoltz - editor, Philip Taft - editor. Publisher: Richard D. Irwin. Place of Publication: Chicago. Publication Year: 1942. Page Number: 197.
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